Contents

1 Syria – Back Story

2 The Planning

3 The Attack

4 A Strategic View

1 Syria

 Reasons why Syria was attacked in 2011

To understand the current conflict in Syria, it would be best to go over some background. The US entered the Middle East after the end of the Second World War. Within 2 decades, the CIA, the World Bank and the American oil and other companies (all within the Rockefeller orbit) made substantial inroads into many states in the region. Syria was included in this. Since the 1973 Israeli-Arab war, the US began to destabilize Syria. The momentum gathered pace after the US invaded Iraq in 2003. The many resistance groups in Iraq made use of the arms supply from Lebanon to Iraq via Syria. This arms pipeline was one of the reasons for Israel to invade Lebanon in August 2006. The long-term aim of Israel is to bring Lebanon out of the control of the Resistance, to make it easier to defeat Hezbollah, and CLOSE OFF the arms pipeline from Lebanon to Iraq. Also, after suffering a humiliating defeat from Lebanon in 2006, Israel was determined to close off the resupply of arms to Hezbollah.

The second reason for the Syrian regime-change operation has to with a gas pipeline from Iran to Syria. On 15 March, 2009, the Emir of Qatar Hamad Al Thani met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus to propose construction of a gas pipeline from Qatar’s North Dome field through Syria’s Aleppo Province onto Turkey aimed at the huge EU gas market. Assad declined, deferring to his long-standing good relations with Russia in gas issues, and not wanting to undercut Russian gas exports to the EU market with Qatari gas. The Persian Gulf gas field, the Qatari part called North Dome and the Iranian part called South Pars, is the largest single gas field in the world. As fate would have it, the field straddles the territorial waters between Qatar and Iran.

Then, in July 2011, With Putin’s approval, Iraq, Iran and Syria signed a different gas pipeline agreement called “Friendship Pipeline”, which called for the construction of a 1,500 km long gas pipeline to bring the vast untapped Iranian South Pars gas to the emerging EU market via Iraq, Syria, and onto the Mediterranean Sea by way of Lebanon.

For New York and the Gulf Arab states, the “Friendship Pipeline” would have changed the energy geopolitical map of Eurasia, and the political influence of Iran over Saudi Arabia. Not surprising, when the mysterious ISIS exploded onto the scenes in 2014, it moved to occupy Aleppo where the pipeline to Turkey from Qatar was planned. Coincidence? Not very likely. The proposed Qatari-Syria-Turkey-EU pipeline would go through Aleppo, and the alternative Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline would go through Lebanon to the EU gas markets. That year, 2011, was the point that Qatar began pouring in $12 billion into the war against Assad, backed by the US, the Gulf Arab states, and by Turkey, which saw its geopolitical European and Asian gas hub ambitions vanishing. The very next month, August 2011, the war in Syria began. The Gulf Arab states and the US poured in billions. Fighters were recruited from China, Central Asian states, and misguided Muslims from various countries to fight the Syrian government. Over the past 13 years, millions have been displaced, about 600,000 killed and extensive destruction to infrastructure. This also includes the loss of resource-rich territories within Syria, especially after the US moved in and occupied strategic areas of Syria. It was a very dirty war.         

 How the US used ISIS to Break up Syria and Iraq

The Great Financial Crash (GFC) of 2008 was engineered by the Rockefeller Empire. This crash had several aims. The first was to cripple the euro and the European banking system; remember the Rockefeller family motto is “COMPETITION IS A SIN!” The second aim was to cripple the oil income of its chief rivals – Russia and the Arab oil exporters. Third was to cripple the sovereign wealth funds of these oil exporters. And the last aim was to destabilize the Middle East, in preparation of the Arab Spring, which broke out some 2 years after the GFC.

 Not long after the outbreak of the Arab Spring, the focus shifted to Syria. There were several aims in the “regime-change” operation, which the CIA codenamed “Operation Timber Sycamore”. The first was to create an independent Kurdish state. The second was to form a principality in the north eastern areas of Syria. The third aim was to build gas pipelines from Qatar to the Eastern Mediterranean coast, with shipments going to Europe.

Then there is the issue of Turkey in trying to reclaim certain parts of northern Syria and Iraq. These were a part of the Ottoman Empire, which Turkey lost in the aftermath of World War 1. These lost lands were taken over by the Rothschild’s. The US promised Erdogan these lands as a means to gain Turkish support in this mission.

Ten years ago this month, the notorious terror group ISIS captured Mosul Iraq’s second-largest city. In only two days of fighting, a few hundred ISIS militants captured the city, forcing thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police to flee in chaos and confusion. The CIA bribed the Iraqi generals in charge of these armies in the north. The US and its regional allies used ISIS as a proxy to orchestrate the fall of Mosul, thereby terrorizing its Sunni Muslim inhabitants to achieve specific foreign policy goals. Says one Mosul resident speaking:  “There was a plan to let ISIS take Mosul, and the USA was behind it. Everyone here knows this, but no one can say it publicly. It was a war against Sunnis “.

‘Salafist Principality’/Caliphate

The conflict in Syria broke out in 2011, when rebels backed by the US and several neighboring countries sought to overthrow President Bashar Assad’s government in Damascus. Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS) militants used the chaos as an opportunity to capture large chunks of Syria and Iraq by 2014.  Assad pointed out that terrorists operate in areas of northeast Syria, where the US maintains a military presence with the rebels.   As the war in Syria raged in August 2012, the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) produced   a now well-known memo providing the broad outlines of the plan that would lead to Mosul’s fall. The memo stated that the insurgency backed by the US and its regional allies to topple Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus was not led by “moderate rebels” but by extremists, including Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al-Qaeda in Iraq (Islamic State of Iraq). These were the “rent-a-mob” terror proxy outfits formed, funded and controlled by the CIA, Mossad and M16. The DIA memo stated further that the US and its allies, “the western powers,” welcomed the establishment of a “Salafist principality” by these extremist forces in the Sunni majority areas of eastern Syria and western Iraq. The US goal was to isolate Syria territorially from its main regional supporter, Iran.

Two years later, in June 2014, ISIS conquered Mosul, declaring it the capital of the so-called “Caliphate.”

ISIS only made the “Salafist principality” predicted in the DIA memo a reality with the help of weapons, training, and funding from the US and its close allies. In subsequent months, the US Army and Saudi Ministry of Defense purchased large quantities of weapons from Eastern European countries, which were then flown to Amman, Jordan, for further distribution to ISIS.  The US-supplied weapons and equipment quickly reaching ISIS via the iconic Toyota Hilux pickup trucks, which became synonymous with the ISIS brand. When the US helicopters took off, they headed toward Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region. Soon, ISIS militants armed with US-made M16 rifles began attacking.  The Islamist “caliphate” was eventually reduced to small pockets of resistance by the Syrian government forces backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.  The remaining non-IS militants, meanwhile, were pushed back into Idlib province, which they used as their base.

The US, Britain, France and Israel formed ISIS in early 2014. The aim was to create a “salafist “enclave in north eastern Syria. The second aim was to make Kurdistan into an independent state. Currently, the Kurds occupy the border areas straddling Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. If this became a reality, then all 4 of these states would have to allocate military power to neutralize this threat to their sovereignty. At the same time, it would weaken the forces arrayed against Israel, thus making it easier to invade these areas. In Syria’s case, with Syria under occupation by US troops, and various proxy forces aligned to the US and Turkey, it leaves the country with not enough power to stop an Israeli invasion of southern Syria, especially the Golan Heights.

The Kurdish Role

Another way US and Saudi-supplied weapons reached ISIS was through Washington’s main Kurdish ally in Iraq, Masood Barzani. The “Kurdish groups” had been providing weapons and other aid financed by donors in Qatar to “religious extremist rebel factions.” In the following months, reports emerged that Kurdish officials from Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) were supplying weapons to ISIS, including Kornet anti-tank missiles.  Barzani’s agents made US dollar payments to terrorist intermediaries and others that were wired through the United States, including through banks in Washington, DC. These payments enabled ISIS to carry out terrorist attacks in Syria, Iraq, and Libya.

It is unthinkable that Barzani regularly arranged payments to ISIS from the heart of the US capital without the knowledge and consent of US intelligence. In the spring of 2014, reports emerged of a deal between Barzani and ISIS to divide territory in northern Iraq between them.

According to the agreement, ISIS would take Mosul, while Barzani’s security forces, the Peshmerga, would take oil-rich Kirkuk and other “disputed territories” desired for a future independent Kurdish state.  ISIS was given the role of “routing the Iraqi army, in exchange for which the Peshmerga would not prevent ISIS from entering Mosul or capturing Tikrit. A meeting took place on 1 June 2014, in Amman, Jordan between representatives of Barzani, Iraqi Baathists, and ISIS leaders. The meeting was organized with the knowledge of the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey to make final preparations for the Mosul operation which began just days later.  Former Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki claimed that meetings were held to plan the Mosul operation in the Iraqi Kurdistan capital, Erbil, which were attended by US military officers. When US officials denied any involvement, Maliki responded by telling them: “These are pictures of American officers sitting in this meeting … you are partners in this operation.”

The Role of British Intelligence

Many of the ISIS members during the group’s three-year occupation of the city were English-speaking foreigners, in particular the ISIS commanders. But where did these English-speaking ISIS members come from?

In 2012, UK intelligence established a pipeline to send British and Belgian citizens to fight in Syria. Young men from London and Brussels were recruited by   Salafist organizations, Shariah4UK and Shariah4Belgium, established by radical preacher and UK British intelligence Anjam Choudary. These recruits were then sent to Syria, where they joined an armed group, Katibat al-Muhajireen, which enjoyed protection   from UK intelligence. These British and Belgian fighters then joined ISIS after its official establishment in Syria in April 2013. The commander of Katibat al-Muhajireen, Abu Omar al-Shishani, also later joined ISIS and famously led   the terror group’s assault on Mosul. There is no indication that the relationship between these fighters and US and UK intelligence ended once they joined ISIS. All Mosul residents stated they were terrified of the largely foreign force occupying the city, which included many militants who spoke no Arabic at all. One resident described how ISIS offered an amnesty to local members of the police and security forces, primarily Sunni Muslims, but then rounded up and massacred those who came forward to “repent.”

US support for the ISIS invasion of Mosul is evident through the actions Washington refused to take. US planners monitored the ISIS convoys traveling across the open desert from Syria to assault Mosul in June 2014 but took no action to bomb them. Even after Mosul fell, and as ISIS was threatening Baghdad, Washington planners refused to help unless Maliki stepped down as prime minister.Maliki claimed that US officials had demanded he impose a siege on Syria to assist in toppling Assad. When Maliki refused, they accused him of sabotaging the Syria regime change operation and sought to use ISIS to topple Iraq’s government. The US–Iraqi relationship at this time had become strained because of the willingness of the Maliki government to facilitate Iranian support to the Assad regime despite significant American opposition.

In July 2014, ISIS fighters were moving captured US artillery and armored vehicles back to Syria across the open desert.

Although Obama ordered airstrikes against ISIS in August 2014, the bombing campaign was only cosmetic. The expansion of the so-called Caliphate was only stopped after the Russian air force intervened in the Syria conflict in September 2015. When Russian warplanes began bombing ISIS and other “rebel” groups in Syria, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter became livid, threatening that Russia would “pay the price.”

 “ISIS was threatening the possibility of going to Damascus. And that is why Russia came in. They didn’t want an ISIS government and they supported Assad. And we know this was growing. We were watching. We saw that Daesh [ISIS] was growing in strength. And we thought Assad was threatened. We thought we could manage that Assad might then negotiate. Instead of negotiating, he got Putin to support him.”

While claiming to be enemies of ISIS, the US planners and their allies deliberately facilitated the terror group’s rise, including its capture of Mosul. ISIS relied on US and UK-trained fighters, US and Saudi-purchased weapons, and Kurdish-supplied US dollars – rather than popular support from the city’s Sunni residents – to conquer Mosul.

When self-proclaimed caliph and leader of ISIS,  al-Baghdadi, announced the establishment of the so-called Caliphate at the city’s historic Nuri Mosque, he set up the very Salafist principality outlined in the DIA document by US intelligence heads.

Here’s a look at the M5, and its place in Syria’s long civil war: WHAT IS IT?

The M5 is a strategic highway that starts in southern Syria, near the border with Jordan, and runs all the way north to the city of Aleppo near the Turkish border. The 450-kilometer highway links the country’s four largest cities and population centers: Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo, cutting through Idlib province. It intersects with the M4 motorway which is the main highway from Aleppo to the port of running parallel to the border with Turkey. The M5, or Syria’s “international road”, threads all of Syria’s major cities and six provinces together.

Before the war, the M5 motorway served as an economic artery for Syria — mainly feeding the country’s industrial hub of Aleppo. Experts estimate the road carried business worth $25 million a day at the height of Syria’s trade boom before the war. The highway was a passageway for the crossing of wheat and cotton from the Syrian east and north to the rest of the country. It was also a road used for the exchange of commodities with regional trade partners like Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, as well as Turkey. Cutting through Syria’s major cities, the motorway is key to who controls the country. Historically a bustling trade route, one Syrian analyst, Taleb Ibrahim, called the M5 “the most basic and strategic highway in the Middle East.” It is arguably one of the most coveted prizes in Syria’s civil war.  The Damascus-Aleppo highway, or the M5, is known to Syrians simply as the “International Road.”

 “In other words it links Syria’s political capital with its economic capital,” he said. It also links up with the M4 highway at the Saraqeb knot, opening up traffic to the government’s coastal stronghold of Latakia and the port.  Parts of the M5 have been in the control of various rebel groups in the since 2012. Assad gradually lost control over the M5 from 2012, when various rebel groups fighting to topple him began seizing parts of the country. For the Turkey-backed rebels fighting Assad, the highway was a cornerstone in holding together their territory and keeping government forces at bay. Recapturing the M5 has always been a high priority for Assad. Sections of the vital highway have been in the hands of opposition and jihadist fighters for the last eight years, but with Russia’s help, the Syrian government has slowly clawed back control since 2014, emptying towns and cities along the route via a series of blistering air campaigns and sieges.

On 14 February 2020, the Syrian Army recaptured the M5 Motorway fully for the first time since 2012, and the highway was reopened for civilian use. Its loss marks a mortal blow for opposition fighters whose hold on their last patches of ground in northwestern Syria is looking more and more precarious.

 The Treaty of Lausanne is an agreement that led to the forming of modern Turkey in 1923. The agreement has recognized the new borders, abolishment of the Caliphate, and formation of the Turkey Republic, Syria under French and Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and Palestine under the British, and the straits between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea which the Bosporus Straits are declared as civilian passage and open to all shipping and Turkey are restricted to not conducting any drilling for oil and gas activities.

With any international agreement in the world, it lasts only for 100 years. By 2023, Turkey was freed from this agreement, and it will change the fate of Europe; under Erdogan, a strong man and statesman of Turkey. He is trying to bring a new breath of modern Turkey. A new era that revives Ottoman ambitions. With the expiration of the treaty after 100 years, Turkey will be able to conduct oil and gas activities such as drilling in the Black Sea, which Turkey estimated the Black Sea holds 10 billion barrels of crude oil and 2 trillion cubic metrics of natural gas, collecting fees and taxes from passing ships through the Bosporus Straits, and creating a new channel for passing vessels – in this case, the Istanbul Canal, Erdogan able to reclaim the island in the Aegean Sea.

Turkey would no longer depend on Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran for energy imports. With economic prosperity, Turkey can rise as the region’s most influential and influencing country. The rise of the new Turkey will bring another dimension and more dynamic geopolitics, especially regarding ideology.

Erdogan’s aims are to bring former Ottoman holdings back under Turkish control. This means Aleppo in Syria and Mosul and Kirkuk in Iraq. The presence of oil is the key issue for Erdogan.

It is one of the reasons why the Turkish control Idlib. Turkey has sustained the HTS terror group with arms, training and supplies. There are an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 rebels, plus their families, in Idlib. Since the Astana Process, Turkey has been sustaining these forces in Idlib.

When Turkish proxies and Intel agents took over eastern Aleppo, they stole most of the factories and transported them back to Turkey. Also, Aleppo is a critical junction for East-West trade between China and Europe. It has been so for centuries. The ruling business elite in Turkey are independent businessmen. But, they have strong financial and economic links with both London and New York. It is these elite, along with Turkish Intelligence, the MIT, that is pushing for the takeover of Aleppo. And Erdogan has no choice but to listen to them; which then brings us to the Astana Process.

Astana Process

Before the current crisis, the Idlib province had remained the last major stronghold of armed opposition to Assad’s government throughout the Syrian conflict. The region became a focal point of overlapping interests among various local and international powers, creating a volatile and tense environment.

In 2017, as part of the Astana peace process, Russia, Turkey, and Iran agreed to establish de-escalation zones, with Idlib designated as one of them. The purpose of these agreements was to reduce the intensity of hostilities and create conditions for a political resolution. However, the ceasefire was repeatedly violated, and military operations persisted, escalating the conflict. The growing influence of radical Islamist groups, such as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), complicated dialogue between the parties, as many of these organizations were excluded from negotiations and classified as terrorist groups.

Turkey, driven by strategic interests and concerns over a new wave of refugees, increased its military presence in Idlib. It supported certain opposition forces and established a network of observation posts, occasionally leading to direct confrontations with the Syrian army and straining relations with Russia. This added another layer of complexity to an already fraught situation, fueling further clashes. The humanitarian situation in Idlib continued to deteriorate. Ongoing hostilities triggered a large-scale humanitarian crisis, displacing millions of people, many of whom became refugees in neighboring countries or were displaced internally. A lack of adequate humanitarian aid and worsening living conditions heightened tensions and eroded trust in authorities. This created fertile ground for radicalization, driving recruitment into armed groups. Idlib’s strategic significance was also a key factor. The province’s location at the intersection of critical transport routes and its border with Turkey gave it both military and economic importance. Control over this territory became a priority for all parties involved, intensifying the struggle and hindering progress toward a peaceful resolution.

The radicalization of the opposition and the presence of extremist elements within its ranks further complicated prospects for peace. These groups had little interest in negotiations and sought to prolong armed conflict, undermining international efforts to stabilize the region. Simultaneously, internal challenges facing the Syrian government, such as economic difficulties, international sanctions, and domestic divisions, weakened its position. This likely prompted the government to pursue more aggressive military action to consolidate control and project strength.

Putin stopped Turkey from taking over Aleppo between 2017 and 2019. In 2020, under intense pressure from Russia and Iran, Erdogan very reluctantly agreed to end any move towards Aleppo. In short, this conflict was “frozen”. It remained so till two weeks ago, when Turkey made its move, after getting the green light from the US and Israel.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar, Turkey & HTS

The Muslim Brotherhood – MB- was founded in the 1920s by the British Rothschild’s. Its office was located at the headquarters of the Suez Canal Company-a Rothschild outfit. It was founded to act as a battering ram against the rising nationalistic forces in Egypt, who were pushing to evict the British from Egypt. This force was unleashed against Nasser when he went against the British.

 Since then, the MB has built up branches in Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states. Its base is in Geneva, Switzerland. The Americans took over the MB in the 1950s. Since then, it has been run by the CIA. The mandate of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East is to infiltrate, infest, take control of key vectors in each society, and at the right time, appear on the scene to fulfill whatever geopolitical aims of the CIA in that country. The Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood was activated in the mid-1970s, and it went on a terror campaign in Syria against the Assad government. It stopped in 1990. It was re-activated in 2011. For more information about the tie-up between the MB and the CIA, M16 is detailed in our article, dated 10 June 2017, titled “weaponing Islam – The Muslim Brotherhood.”

Remember, when the CIA installed Morsi as the new leader of Egypt, following the coup that toppled Mubarak. However, the Saudis overthrew Morsi and placed Sissi as Egypt’s new leader. Erdogan was very upset about this.

Erdogan came up through the Turkish branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Qatar is in the Rothschild orbit. Its famous TV station Al Jazeera was funded and founded by Louis Rothschild of the French branch. In 1996, when Al Jazeera began its English format, all the journalists were sent by the BBC- another Rothschild outfit. Qatar always toes the line of the Rothschild’s, including being invested in various Rothschild companies. In addition, The US is also heavily present in Qatar due to Qatar hosting the US base at al-Udeid. Now, knowing these facts, it makes sense that Turkey also has a military base in Qatar. The recent invasion of Syria by the HTS, Qatar funded the costs of this venture, while Turkey was the enabler. During the Gaza war, Erdogan was famous for “mouthing” against Israel, but continued trading with it – hypocrisy of the highest level.

2 The Planning

At the end of the war in Syria in 2020, Assad told the people, who were at that time totally demoralized, that the war is over. Both the government and the 15 million Syrians let their guard down. This was a huge mistake, as the US, Israel and Turkey was doing the opposite.

Since the start of the war in 2011, Damascus has never met such a devastating defeat like the fall of Aleppo. Iraq lived something tragically similar with the fall of Mosul in 2014. It’s fair to argue that the absolute majority of Syrians are against the 2020 Russia-Turkey-Iran deal which in fact prevented the liberation of Idlib: a major strategic blunder. It gets worse – because the problem actually started in 2018, when the Turks were not even in Afrin, and the liberation of Hama/Idlib was interrupted for the sake of liberating the suburbs of Damascus. It’s from there that tens of thousands of jihadis were transferred to Idlib.

After the 2020 deal, Iran and pro-Iran forces left Syria, especially in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. These sectors were transferred to the SAA. As for Russian businesses, which were already not exactly interested in being sanctioned by going against the Western blockade against Damascus, they were snubbed by the local clans, tribes and families. When we got to 2020 it was already too late: Idlib was defended by none other than the Turkish Army. The SAA, when it comes to Idlib, proved itself to be an asleep-at-the wheel disaster. They did not upgrade their defenses, did not integrate the use of drones, did not prepare tactical defense against FPV kamikaze drones and observation drones, and did not pay attention to the scores of foreign spies. No wonder the Rent-a-Jihadi mob found no resistance to take most of Aleppo in 48 hours.

The Global Majority should be on full alert. This attack is part of a complex interconnected operation.

After the 2020 deal in Sochi between Turkey, Iran and Russia, peace prevailed in the area. Erdogan was forced to accept this deal under pressure from Iran and Russia. Erdogan is compulsively treacherous. He then began to plan option 2. The next 4 years, Turkey, the US, and the Rothschild trinity – Britain, France and Israel- planned a new operation to , not only take Aleppo, but to go all the way to Damascus.

The timeline tells the story.

November 18: Ronen Bar, Israel’s Shin Bet chief, meets with heads of MIT, Turkey’s intelligence agancy.

November 25: NATO Chief Mark Rutte meets with Turkey’s Sultan Erdogan.

November 26: Salafi-jihadis assembled by HTS supported by Turkish Intel, plus a hefty Rent-a-Jihadi coalition, launch a lightning-fast attack against Aleppo.

The offensive originated in Idlib. That’s where tens of thousands of jihadis were holed up, according to the – now proven failed – 2020 Damascus-Moscow strategy, which Turkey had to grudgingly accept. The Rent-a-Jihadi mob comprises scores of mercenaries who crossed over from – where else – Turkey: Uighurs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Ukrainians, even ISIS-K imports. Right before the ceasefire, Tel Aviv smashed virtually all communication routes between Syria and Lebanon. Netanyahu subsequently stressed that the focus now is on “the Iranian threat”, essential to smash the Axis of Resistance.

Ukrainian advisers played the key role in the capture of Aleppo – providing drones and American satellite navigation and electronic warfare systems, and teaching Syrian collaborators and Islamic Party of Turkestan operatives how to use them.

Syrian Arab Army (SAA) communications were completely jammed by these electronic warfare systems: “The assault groups and drones were equipped with encrypted GPS devices and extensive use of AI, so that the use and navigation of attack UAVs and kamikaze drones took place from a long distance.”

The mechanism was set in place months ago. Kiev made a straightforward deal with Salafi-jihadis: drones in exchange for batches of takfiris to be weaponized against Russia in the US/NATO proxy war in Ukraine.

What is Turkey really up to?

What the facts do spell out is that a new front has de facto been opened against Iran; US/Israel Divide and Rule carries the potential to completely smash the Tehran-Ankara entente; and key Russian – mostly aerospace – assets will have to be diverted from Ukraine to support Damascus.

There’s no mystery: for years, Ankara has been dying to control Aleppo – even indirectly, to “stabilize” it for business (to the benefit of Turkish companies) and also to allow the return of a lot of relatively wealthy Aleppo refugees currently in Turkey. In parallel, occupying Aleppo is also an American project: in this case to seriously undermine the Axis of Resistance to the benefit of Tel Aviv.

What else is new: Sultan Erdogan – now a BRICS partner – once again is in the hot seat. Worse: vis a vis two key BRICS members. Moscow and Tehran expect a lot of detailed explaining. There’s nothing that Putin abhors more than outright betrayal. Erdogan took the initiative, and called Putin – introducing a twist: he focused on Russia-Turkey economic relations. After the tsunami of sanctions against Russia, Turkey turned into the key, privileged bridge between Moscow and the West. Besides, there are substantial Russian investments in Turkey: gas, nuclear, food imports. Both players always approached the war in Syria connected to geo-economics.             

Meanwhile, the facts are again implacable. HTS is rather a Turkey ISIS. Commander Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, de facto Emir of the ultra-dodgy rebrand, ditched all al-Qaeda variants plus ISIS to form HTS. He does command an array of Rent-a-Jihadis – mostly from the Heartland. And he is a darling of Turkey’s MIT. Ergo, a darling of Israel/NATO.  CIA/Pentagon, each operating their own network, weaponized 21 out of 28 Syrian militias, Salafi-jihadi and otherwise, organized by Turkey’s MIT into a sort of mercenary “national army” in Idlib.

 Former Israeli officials admitted supplying the HTS gang with funds, weapons, ammunition and even medical treatment. Former Israeli Army Colonel Mordechai Kedar openly admitted support for “rebels” to “remove triangle of Hezbollah, Iran and Assad. The “rebels”, he said, even manifested their desire to “open Israeli embassies in Damascus and Beirut”. HTS is the latest incarnation of one of the collective West’s favorite toys: the “moderate rebels.  Allegiance is nearly 100% to Ankara. They hate Shi’ites and Alawites – and run an extensive prison network. This time, it was clear for months that HTS was preparing an offensive. Warnings were sent to Damascus. But the Syrians trusted the deal with Turkey and the re-established relations with Arab nations. Big mistake!

In reality, the HTS operation was by no means a spur-of-the-moment offensive but rather a result of years-long preparations spearheaded by US and Turkish intelligence to unify the ranks of various extremist factions in Syria’s north. This project took place under the direct supervision of the Turkish Intelligence, which aimed to converge the militant groups in Idlib and the Aleppo countryside and place decision-making in the hands of mainly two parties: the so-called Syrian National Army (SNA), which is loyal to Ankara, and HTS.  In this mash-up of terror outfits are the Turkestan,  Uyghur, and various other “jihadi” and  ethnicities all queuing up to become “foot soldiers “ for the CIA, M16 and the Mossad, used primarily as strike forces in specific military operations, largely fulfilling the interests of their US and Turkish funders. 

Military expert, Brigadier General Hassoun, confirms that preparations to launch this operation began “a long time ago,” and that the participating groups established a joint ops room about a month and a half ago. He believes that the militants benefited from “misdirection” and electronic warfare media operations carried out by Turkish intelligence to camouflage their intentions and movements and by Turkish occupation forces inside Syria during the days preceding the shock offensive. The militants further benefited from sophisticated Intel that helped them exploit existing loopholes on the ground and were aware of vacuums in the Syrian army’s positions, which then led to this breach and confusion in the defense lines.

The 2016 liberation of Aleppo and the 2019 de-escalation understandings (the Astana Process) managed to calm the situation. But those hard-fought understandings had always remained fragile, given that Turkey evaded its commitments to purge the M5 area of terrorist groups. The militancy in Syria’s north served Ankara’s interest in maintaining pressure on Damascus. It also explains this week’s armed operation – an action the Turks believe will force Assad to agree to Turkish demands.

Another objective of the operation may be the US decision to maintain a state of conflict in the region and redirect pressure toward Russia and its regional allies ahead of Trump’s return to the White House. At the same time, both the families wanted to create tensions between Iran and Turkey, as over the past 2 years, ties between them were becoming stronger. Now, fast forward to the current situation, which will be discussed in Part 2 of this article ….