In late 2016, at the cost of
many young lives, Syrian forces took back the eastern part of the city
of Aleppo, occupied by NATO and Saudi backed terrorists for more than
four years.
The liberation of Aleppo,
Syria’s second city and an ancient marvel, represents the most serious
setback for the 15-year long Washington-led aggression on the entire
region. An effective re-colonization of the region has stretched from
Afghanistan to Libya, under a range of false pretexts. Invasions and
proxy wars have been backed by economic sanctions and wild propaganda.
But this great war of aggression
- called the creation of ‘New Middle East’ by former US President
George W. Bush - has hit a rock in Syria. The massive proxy armies
bought and equipped by Washington and its regional allies the Saudis,
Turkey, Qatar and Israel, have been beaten back by a powerful regional
alliance which supports the Syrian nation.
The endgame in Aleppo involves a
handful of foreign agents - US, Saudi, Israeli and others – said to
remain with the last al-Qaeda groups in a tiny part of what was once
their stronghold. The US in particular is keen to secure their release,
because their presence is further evidence of the foreign command of
what was claimed to be a ‘civil war’.
After a storm of western
government and media misinformation (claims of massacres, mass
executions and ‘civilians targeted’) over the evacuation of around
100,000 civilians and many thousands of terrorists, the UN Security
Council authorized some ‘independent observers’ to monitor the process.
However most of that evacuation is now over. Resettlement and
reconstruction is already underway, and army reserves have been called
up to defend the city.
Syrian, Iranian, Russian and
independent reporters (including Maytham al Ashkar, Shadi Halwi, Asser
Khatab, Khaled Alkhateb, Ali Musawi, Lizzie Phelan, Murad Gazdiev,
Vanessa Beeley, Eva Bartlett and the late Mohsen Khazaei) have already
told us quite a lot. What they said bore little resemblance to the
western apocalyptic stories. For example, outgoing UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-Moon, a close ally of Washington, claimed in his last press
conference that 'Aleppo is now a synonym for hell'. Those claims were
based on stories from NATO’s desperate fighters.
Reporters on the ground told a
different story. As Syrian forces smashed the al Qaeda lines, the
trapped civilians streamed out. They published video of long lines of
people leaving east Aleppo and finding relief, food and shelter with the
Syrian Arab Army. Tired and relieved, they told their stories to anyone
who cared to listen. Russia and Iran gave many tons of food, clothing,
blanket and shelter aid. By contrast, western countries generally gave
nothing and the terror groups rejected all aid from the Syrian alliance.
Civilians were prohibited from
leaving the al-Qaeda enclave, many were shot dead when they tried to do
so. The armed gangs had food reserves but kept it for their fighters.
Arms factories including toxic chemicals were found and were being made
safe. Some of the armed men were taken into custody, but most were
shipped out to Idlib, where Damascus has been concentrating the
foreign-backed fighters.
When the hell canons fell
silent, and no more home-made gas cylinder mortars landed in the heart
of the city, there was elation and dancing in the streets, shown widely
on social media. The US State Department spokesman claimed he had not
seen this.
Al Qaeda in Aleppo was crushed.
All the anti-Syrian government armed groups in Aleppo were either the
‘official’ al Qaeda in Syria (Jabhat al Nusra aka Jaysh Fateh al Sham)
or deeply embedded associates. When the US pretended to suppress Jabhat
al Nusra in 2012 and 2016, all the ‘Free Syrian Army’ groups protested,
saying ‘we are all Jabhat al Nusra’. One might have thought that the US
Government - which once claimed to be engaged in a global war against
terrorism, in the name of 3,000 people murdered in New York back in
September 2001 - would be as elated as those on the streets of Aleppo.
They were not.
Much of the western media,
reflecting their governments, solemnly reported on ‘the fall of Aleppo’.
The Syrian victory over the al Qaeda groups was a great tragedy, they
said. On the other hand, the near simultaneous recapture of Syria’s
ancient city of Palmyra, by the eastern al Qaeda group ISIS, was
reported differently. That city was said to have been ‘retaken’.
All this underlines what should
have been an obvious point, admitted by many US officials, that every
single armed group in Syria (whether ‘moderate’ or ‘extremist’) has been
armed and financed by the US and its allies, in an attempt to overthrow
the Syrian Government. All the talk about ‘moderate rebels’, a ‘brutal
regime’ and a ‘civil war’ just tries to hide this.
The final evacuations of Aleppo -
which included an exchange of civilians besieged for 20 months in the
Idlib towns of Faoua and Kafraya for remaining NATO-jihadists in eastern
Aleppo – were organized between Russia and Turkey. There was some
serious sabotage of these agreements, but the understandings have so far
stayed on track. Now Iran is engaged with Russia and Turkey, in three
way talks. Practical matters are being discussed.
It is notable that the Obama
administration is playing no direct constructive role in the endgame
over Aleppo. Its ‘regime change’ proxy war on Syria is failing and, in
its place, the incoming Washington regime promises a new approach. More
importantly, a new regional alliance has formed to reject any new
aggression from the colonial powers.
Many things have changed during
the war on Syria. The Syrian alliance has beaten back powerful NATO-GCC
forces. The Muslim Brotherhood and its patrons in Egypt, Qatar and
Turkey have received another beating. Egypt and Iraq now support Syria.
The Saudis have joined with Israel again Iran and Syria. Russia has
built stronger bonds with Syria and Iran. The Arab league, having backed
the destruction of two Arab states, seems all but dead. Will the new,
enhanced ‘Axis of Resistance’ take its place?
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