Sunni-dominated Jordan, Closely Aligned with the USA, Backs Russia in Syrian Conflict; Russia Already Has Forged Close Cooperation with Iraq, Syria and Iran, All Part of a Loose Shi'ite Alliance Pursuing Different Aims from Those of the United States and Its Allies

Jordan's King Abdullah to discuss war on Syria militants with Putin

November 22, 2015.

Reuters - U.S. ally Jordan's King Abdullah will hold talks in Moscow on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin on how to tackle "terror groups" led by Islamic State in Syria, an official source said.

Jordan reached an agreement with Moscow last October to ensure Russian bombing of targets in southern Syria, which borders the country, does not target Western backed rebels known as the Southern Front - a grouping it supports as a buffer against the spread of hardline Islamist groups in an area that also borders with Israel.

Diplomats say the Russian air force has stepped up in recent days bombing of mainly civilian targets in rebel-controlled towns in southern Syria, including parts of rebel-held Deraa city that are run by moderate rebel groups backed by Jordan.

Jordan has not publicly commented but the monarch, who has close personal ties with Putin, recently publicly expressed enthusiasm about the intensive Russian military campaign in Syria, saying it offered a window of opportunity and that Moscow had a key role in defeating the ultra-hardline militants.

Jordan, however, is Sunni-dominated and closely aligned with Washington, so Moscow's deal with Jordan could mark a shift in the alliances engaged in the Syria conflict.

Putin has already forged close cooperation with the governments of Iraq, Syria and Iran, which are all part of a loose Shi'ite alliance pursuing different aims from those of the United States and its allies.

US lawmakers say forget Assad, focus on IS

November 20, 2015 

AP - In an unusual alliance, a House Democrat and Republican have teamed up to urge the Obama administration to stop trying to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad and focus all its efforts on destroying Islamic State militants.

Reps. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat, and Austin Scott, a Republican, introduced legislation on Friday to end what they called an "illegal war" to overthrow Assad, the leader of Syria accused of killing tens of thousands of Syrian citizens in a more than four-year-old civil war entangled in a battle against IS extremists, also known as ISIS.

"The U.S. is waging two wars in Syria," Gabbard said. "The first is the war against ISIS and other Islamic extremists, which Congress authorized after the terrorist attack on 9/11. The second war is the illegal war to overthrow the Syrian government of Assad."

Scott said,

"Working to remove Assad at this stage is counter-productive to what I believe our primary mission should be."

Publicly, the United States has focused its efforts on fighting IS and urging Assad to step down. But beyond thousands of U.S. airstrikes targeting IS in the region, the CIA began a covert operation in 2013 to arm, fund and train a moderate opposition to Assad. The secret CIA program is the only step the U.S. is taking on Assad militarily.


In the Philippines on Thursday for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, President Barack Obama reiterated America's demand that Assad must go.

"The bottom line is: I do not foresee a situation in which we can end the civil war in Syria while Assad remains in power," Obama said.

Since 2013, the CIA has trained an estimated 10,000 fighters, although the number still fighting with so-called moderate forces is unclear. CIA-backed rebels in Syria, who had begun to put serious pressure on Assad's forces, are now under Russian bombardment with little prospect of rescue by their American patrons, U.S. officials say.

For years, the CIA effort had foundered — so much so that over the summer, some in Congress proposed cutting its budget. Some CIA-supported rebels had been captured; others had defected to extremist groups.

Gabbard complained that Congress has never authorized the CIA effort, though covert programs do not require congressional approval, and the program has been briefed to the intelligence committees as required by law, according to congressional aides who are not authorized to be quoted discussing the matter.

Gabbard contends the effort to overthrow Assad is counter-productive because it is helping IS topple the Syrian leader and take control of all of Syria. If IS were able to seize the Syrian military's weaponry, infrastructure and hardware, the group would become even more dangerous than it is now and exacerbate the refugee crisis.

Britain should cooperate with Russia over Syria strikes: Moscow

November 21, 2015 

 

Reuters - Britain should cooperate with Russia in any air strikes it carries out in Syria, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview broadcast on Saturday, underlining Moscow's growing assertiveness in the region.

Britain has already launched air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq. But Prime Minister David Cameron wants to follow allies by extending the operation to militant positions in neighboring Syria, and has said he will submit a plan to parliament to do so.

"Undoubtedly, it (any British action) should be a matter of cooperation, so that the steps are not directed at destroying the statehood of Syria," Zakharova told current affairs program Vesti on Saturday.

Zakharova cited remarks by the Syrian ambassador in Moscow, according to which countries that coordinate their military actions with Russia are regarded by Syria as coordinating their actions with Syria.

Russia began a large-scale bombing campaign against targets in Syria on Sept. 30, which Moscow says is focused on Islamic State militants but critics say targets a wider band of opponents of Moscow's ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Following last week's gun and bomb attacks in Paris, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed his military to work with French forces as "allies", fuelling speculation about deeper military cooperation between Russia and the West against Islamic State that would help thaw relations more generally.

However, Russia and the West remain deeply divided about the future of Assad and the role of his government in approving military operations in Syria.

Cameron said on Wednesday that the backing of the United Nations Security Council would be preferable for British military action but was not necessary, and that Russia had repeatedly threatened to veto any resolution authorizing force.

Commenting on Cameron's remarks, Zakharova said that Britain "should have reached of course not for the microphone but for the telephone" to instruct the British ambassador to the United Nations "to begin consultations, including with Russia".

"We have never blocked anything (at the UN Security Council), as far as sensible initiatives based on international law are concerned," she said.

In the past Russia and China have repeatedly blocked Western-backed UN Security Council resolutions critical of the Syrian government or proposing stronger international actions against it.