Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Asad

Most recents (10)

Thread: 24 October 2022: Day 243 of #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine
Latest @DefenceHQ update: #Russia is using #Iran's Shahed-136 drones, but #Ukraine is "increasingly successful" dealing with them. Even if President Zelensky exaggerates when he says 85% of them are brought down, they are slow, noisy, and a poor replacement for precision missiles Image
Foreign Secretaries of #America, #Britain, and #France issued a statement overnight "reject[ing] #Russia's transparently false allegations that #Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory". This is a "pretext for [Russian] escalation". gov.uk/government/new… Image
Read 43 tweets
Great piece by @Levitt_Matt: "The Assad Regime’s Business Model for Supporting the Islamic State" lawfareblog.com/assad-regimes-…
One of the first things I wrote in 2014, and kept updated for a while as a rolling compilation of evidence, at a time when it was regarded as something of a conspiracy theory: "The Assad Regime's Collusion With ISIS and al-Qaeda: Assessing The Evidence" kyleorton.co.uk/2014/03/24/ass…
Wrote about this a couple of times since then:

"Provocation and the Islamic State: Why Assad Strengthened the Jihadists" kyleorton.co.uk/2014/09/03/pro…

"Partners in Terror: The Assad Regime and the Islamic State" kyleorton.co.uk/2016/03/10/par…
Read 8 tweets
The reports that #IRGC Quds commander Qassem Sulaymani and his Iraqi deputy, Jamal al-Ibrahimi (Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis), have been killed by a drone strike [apparently American] in Baghdad are now coming from Iraqi politicians close to #Iran/#Hashd and #Hizballah outlets, FWIW.
The #US should have killed Quds Force commander Qassem Sulaymani and the other senior members of the #IRGC network in Iraq, Abu Mahdi chief among them, many years ago. What's odd is "why-now?", if this has happened. Where they aiming for a Hashd guy and got lucky?
By "odd", what I mean is - despite the clear rhetorical and tit-for-tat escalations on the Gulf and at the Iraqi bases - the #US is in no way positioned to absorb what #Iran will throw at them if they have killed Qassem Sulaymani.
Read 48 tweets
It's not even surprising that the @WashingtonPost provides space to terrorists any more.

Cemil Bayik, the #PKK leader, has an op-ed in today's paper calling for "peace" with #Turkey. It's a skilled piece of propaganda. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/… <thread below>
Bayik notes #PKK was "born in 1978 [and] launched a guerrilla war in 1984". In that gap, the PKK, which spent all its time in #Turkey fighting the Left and other Kurds, moved to Syria and Lebanon to be built into an army by the #Soviets, using #Asad and the #PLO as cut-outs.
#PKK leader Cemil Bayik in his WaPo op-ed skips over the return to violence by the #PKK in 2004 entirely, and then misrepresents how the second ceasefire broke down in 2015, blaming #Turkey. In fact, the PKK murdered several policemen, claiming it as "revenge" for an #IS attack.
Read 7 tweets
#YPG/#PKK publicly invites the #Asad/#Iran system into the border areas, particularly Minbij, which was captured because of the efforts of the U.S., working in coordination with #Turkey, having promised that the city would be handed over to local rule after #IS was gone.
It doesn't seem that the #PKK has handed Minbij to the #Asad/#Iran system just yet, though a regime delegation visited this morning.
Worth noting here that the #SDF/#PKK opened Minbij up to Asad's secret police a long time ago, and if the Asad regime is present it means Iranian operatives are, too. thedailybeast.com/us-arms-kurds-…
Read 10 tweets
The #YPG/#PKK announces that its operatives have murdered Akash Ahmad Ali, a member of the ruling council in Efrin. #Syria nedaa-sy.com/en/news/7735
The #YPG/#PKK put out a video of its sleeper agents in the Efrin zone assassinating a member of Faylaq al-Sham in a drive-by shooting on 28 July. #Syria
The #YPG/#PKK also put out a video yesterday from the EUPHRATES SHIELD zone of its forces killing a rebel fighter, ostensibly a member of Ahrar al-Sham. #Syria
Read 4 tweets
Our partner force in #Syria, the #SDF/#PKK is further formalizing its close relationship with the #Asad/#Iran system and mulling joint offensive operations against a #NATO member. So that's all going well. reut.rs/2LD074A
As @Reuters notes: our partner in #Syria, the #SDF/#PKK, a paragon of liberalism and Western values, "indefinitely postponed" the final stage of an election that was already a Soviet-style sham, excluding thousands of Arabs and run under conditions of suffocating autocracy.
Be interesting to see if the U.S. responds publicly to the #SDF/#PKK's suggestion it will help in #Asad-#Iran-#Russia's proposed campaign of mass-slaughter in Idlib and in joint attacks on NATO's #Turkey.

One highly doubts it; the PKK has literally got away with murder so far.
Read 5 tweets
"It's time to put the myth of 'separating Russia from Iran' to rest. The evidence shows that Russia and Iran are fast allies, and are more likely to remain so than to separate." Great piece by Shlomo Bolts. jpost.com/Opinion/The-my…
SEPT 2017: @Doranimated and @peterrough wrote of "the deep mutual dependence between the Russians and the Iranians [in #Syria]", and thus the unlikelihood of "truly splitting the two". mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2017/09/…
JAN 2018: "What is clear ... is that there are only two real options: either #Russia has leverage [to pressure #Iran and #Asad in Syria] but doesn’t wish to use it, or Russia doesn’t have leverage." jpost.com/Opinion/The-Ir… v @Ayei_Eloheichem
Read 6 tweets
The U.S.'s proposal for an accord with #Russia over #Syria, the purpose of which is to get #Iran out, is broadly known from reporting. Folks familiar with the Syria policy discussions clarified some details. <Thread below>
As an aside: the Syria policy seems to have been taken away from the State Department, wholly into the White House, specifically into the hands of John Bolton, in the run-up to this summit with Putin.
The U.S. will propose:
- Withdrawal of #Iran's personnel (inc. #Hizballah) from Syria, *not* in a "phased" manner but as Stage One of the process;
- After six months, with verification Iran is gone, the U.S. will shut down its bases, not just Tanf, all in the SDF/PKK area
Read 9 tweets
The representative for the #Netherlands is trying to shame #Russia into not using its veto to defend Bashar al-Asad's "mass atrocities". Best of luck ....
Amb. @nikkihaley asked about gas attacks and then attacks on the first-responders: "Who does this? Only a monster does this."

#Russia's hands are "covered in the blood of Syrian children", the Ambassador says, and "cannot be ashamed ... we have tried that before."
Amb. @nikkihaley attacks #Russia for its backing of #Asad, something "no civilized government" would do; its help in directing the siege-and-starve campaigns in #Syria; and its assistance to the broader war crimes.

The U.S. "will not be held hostage" to Moscow's veto.
Read 27 tweets

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