CHINA, RUSSIA, AND SYRIA
Forget about a unipolar solution to the mess in Syria. Not only has Mr. Putin intervened in the country, but China is now signalling that it may place significant military assets in the country according to this article shared by Mr. G.B.:
China Joins Russia in Syria: Shaping the New Anti-Terrorist Alliance
According to the article, China's current commitment is limited to humanitarian aid and military training:
In a major policy shift, China has launched the pivot to the Middle East aimed at increasing its involvement in the region by providing military training and humanitarian aid in Syria. In April, China appointed a special envoy to Damascus in order to work toward a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Before the assignment Chinese envoy Xie Xiaoyan had praised «Russia’s military role in the war, and said the international community should work harder together to defeat terrorism in the region».
On August 14, Rear-Admiral Guan Youfei, the head of the Office for International Military Cooperation under the Central Military Commission that oversees China’s 2.3 million-member armed forces, visited Syria to meet Syrian Defence Minister Fahd Jassim Al Freij and Russian Lieutenant-General Sergei Chvarkov, head of the ceasefire monitoring mission in Syria, as well as Russian top commanders at the Hmeimim military base on the Syrian coast. The visit marks a major milestone in the relationship to make Beijing a party to the conflict.
During the visit, China and Syria announced plans to boost military cooperation, including training and humanitarian aid, signaling stronger Chinese support for Damascus. It is the first public visit by a senior Chinese military officer to the country since the Russian armed forces launched its operation in Syria last September. (Emphasis added)
We all know by now how these things go: first comes the humanitarian aid, then comes the military training and arms sales, then come the troops in the form of more "advisors." But as the article also notes, China's role here is motivated by a genuine desire to stabilize the region as a component for its "new silk road" project to build infrastructure tying the Far East, central Asia, and Europe together, and this cannot be done so long as there is sectarian Islamic violence in the region toppling Arab secular Islamic states:
The Chinese entry into the war is caused by the increasing number of Chinese Muslim Uighur militants fighting alongside Syrian rebels in the country’s north. Rear-Admiral Guan Youfei said over 200 Uighurs was currently fighting in Syria. China wants them to be either put on trial at home or exterminated on the Syrian battlefield. Its concern is justified.
Today there is a Uyghur neighborhood in Ar-Raqqah, and the Islamic State (IS) group publishes a newspaper especially for its members. Besides, geostrategic stability in the Middle East important for the implementation of the Chinese «One Belt, One Road» strategy aimed at facilitating Eurasian economic connectivity through the development of a web of infrastructure and trade routes linking China with South Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
The current fracturing of the Middle East as a result of the Syrian crisis hinders the efforts to bring this project into life. Last year, China altered the national legislation to allow the deployment of its security forces abroad as part of a counterterrorism effort.
China may play a key role in Syria’s post-conflict economic recovery. Despite the war, China National Petroleum Corporation still holds shares in two of Syria’s largest oil producers: The Syrian Petroleum Company and Al-Furat Petroleum Company, while Sinochem also holds substantial shares in various Syrian oil fields. In December, China offered Syria $6 billion worth of investments in addition to $10 billion worth of existing contracts, as well as a big deal signed between the Syrian government and Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to rebuild Syria’s telecom infrastructure as part of China’s $900 billion ‘Silk Road’ infrastructure initiative.
And Mr. Assad has indicated that in any post-crisis peace and recovery, the USSA will be carefully excluded from reconstruction in Syria, and has extended offers to the other major regional power, India, to be similarly involved:
In March Syrian President Bashar Assad said that Russia, Iran and China will be given priority in the post-war reconstruction plans.
...
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has invited India to play an active role in the reconstruction of the Syrian economy.
Meanwhile, as I noted in last week's News and Views from the Nefarium, the USSA's response to all this is simply to say it will quit talking to Russia altogether, and, as one Russian analysis put it, sit in the corner and pout.
The real story behind the scenes here, as I also suggested in last week's News and Views, is that the USA has hitched its Middle East foreign policy wagon to the wrong horse, namely, the (out)house of Saud, and as a result, appears to have become embroiled in a variety of terrorism sponsoring operations in Syria, and "nation-building" exercises designed to overthrow nations on Riyadh's hit list, a classic case of the tail wagging the dog. Indeed, the Obama administration managed to resist similar pressures for armed interventions in Iran, a long-time (Shia) enemy of the (Suni-Wahhabist) Saudi kingdom. This has resulted in the insanity we see now, with the US claiming to be waging a war on terror by arming terrorist organizations in Syria. Even Israel - Israel! - has been signaling that it is having second thoughts about American policy in the region by Prime Minister Netanyahu's recent visits to Russia to meet personally with President Putin.
From the standpoint of foreign policy, and particularly Washington's off-reiterated concerns about growing Chinese power and assertiveness, what American policy in the region has now resulted in is not the exclusion of China from the Middle East, but the exact opposite. Now, for all its efforts, Washington has managed to inject not only China, but India, into the mix.
My high octane speculation of the day? With Washington's international political capital dwindling at an alarming rate, I suspect it will now pressure the European powers, in particular, France, Italy, and Germany, to take a role in the "peace process" to inject a make-believe element of "multi-polarism" into the mix, particularly as those nations have been affected by the refugees from Syria, the crisis that Washington helped to create. But my prediction is that if Washington attempts to take that step, that it will backfire. M. Hollande's and Frau Merkel's governments are now domestically weak, with rising opposition to their open borders policies fueling domestic political opposition as national elections loom in France. So Paris and Berlin, and Rome, for once might show some unwanted independence from Washington if, indeed, in desperation to save a deteriorating international standing, Washington invokes their help. And if the governments in Paris and Berlin change, you can almost take that to the bank.
And that will leave only Japan in Washington's corner, and even that, now, is up for grabs with Japan and Russia increasingly talking about Japanese investments in Siberia.
See you on the flip side...
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Whutta winning team. China, India and Russia! You just can’t beat those men with foreskin…and the gurls who love them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY9EYnlAfsU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arer-Mu8zCo
Lets hope China’s military aid in Syria is more ‘involved’ than their peacekeeping forces that they put in place in Sudan after discovering that there was petrol over there too.
Recent breaking news makes it obvious that its no longer a good idea to become part of Humanitarian Aid Projets.
Dont expect France to foster peace talks. they recently tried to do a Libya Peace talk.. Seeing as they used to be Kaddafi’s best mate (used Libya as a bufferzone to keep back the African Refugees, Kaddafi financed Ex President Sarkozy’s first Presedential campaign) and they forgot to invite the LIBYAN delegation. I mean, extreme incompetence can only go so far as an excuse..
I wonder what good Germany can do with their Banks falling through the floor..
And Sarko seems to be taking a leave out of the Bush/Clinton dynasties.. and he’s trying to come back into power as well.
Which would probably ice over relations to USA if ‘We came, we saw, he died’ Clinton gets into power. She killed his golden goose.
In researching the details on the Syrian cease-fire deal worked out between US Sec of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on 09-09-2016, an opinion piece appeared in the New York Times on 09-14-2016 titled “America’s Mr. Diplomacy that makes a rather startling claim.
“The agreement [Syrian cease-fire] also has powerful critics inside the Obama administration, including Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. Pentagon officials refused to say whether they would comply with their part of the deal, which calls on the United States to share information with the Russians on Islamic State targets in Syria if the cease-fire holds for seven days.”
That statement appears to underscore a rift, if not an outright chasm in the ObamaNation administration. Wonder what might have occurred if the Pentagon actually refused to obey a direct order from POTUS? Was
that ‘accidental’ strike by the US on the Syrian army a good thing?
The Saudis are definitely involved. However I do believe the ring leader – the true terrorist operative hidden in the weeds – is ISRAEL.
How is it that no Islamic terrorist group has attacked Israel? Why were Israelis in the ISIS terrorist command center alongside US operatives?
Nothing will be solved in the Middle East until Israel is ejected from the region.
So saud is criminal and involved in terrorism foreign and domestic. And 911. Who cares? Other than those of us who feel that learning something occult makes us more useful and less used.
We seemed to have so far forgotten adeeper and more pertinent layer. Caf never stopped saying it.
War is a rich mans trick and not nearly his only one.
All well and good. It has taken what 15 years to drill down to a more pertinent layer of lies on 911. That might b by design.
Israel has also played its part in the Syrian war. Would this be the neocons in Israel that are doing this?
http://www.newsweek.com/benjamin-netanyahu-admits-israeli-forces-operate-syria-400204
Billions of dollars have been “invested” by Washington, Britain, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to overthrow the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, and what have they accomplished? They are backing so-called “moderate terrorists” who are holding hostages as human shields in East Aleppo. While in other parts of Syria underage Yazidis girls, who are ethnically Kurdish and should be under the protection of Washington are being kidnapped to be used as sex slaves. The Peshmerga who are defending more than 1,000 kilometer frontline have been attacked with chemical weapons at least 19 times, and have been pleading for basic items such as gas masks and proper medical supplies to treat those injured in chemical attacks.
You have to look at the medium-wide picture. One of the three main nations that attacked Israel in the 1973 war has been utterly devastated ‘from within’. Syria would be unable to mount any operation against Israel, even if it still wanted to…
Now, guess which shadowy figures are REALLY behind the ‘op’ in Syria?
Taking Aleppo and Raqqa will probably require Russian infantry. If China contributed large numbers of infantry this would be a game changer. Will the Anglo-American forces try a no-fly zone and potentially start a war with Russia and China?
Yes some great comments today. There is not much I can add except to say that I just hope that somebody in Washington and the pentagon “acts” to stop this foreign policy madness. Because if they don’t “act’ we are all going to end up dead. You can only push Russia and China so far, but it seems that hasn’t entered the minds of the neocons.
The senile minds pulling the strings don’t care because despite all their life extension technologies their time is still almost up. All they care about is getting their way before they go, even if they have to live in their underground mansions after they’ve laid radioactive waste over the entire surface. At least they will finally have the satisfaction of reigning supreme briefly in their underground tombs before they pass on.
Morlocks and Eloi…
Loosely-related to today’s article, as THIS was what started it all:
veteranstoday dot com/2016/10/05/911-filling-in-the-map-tracing-the-nukes/
Many details. Well-worth the read…
Joseph, an excellent article. I can only suggest a small change, as it is almost a typo:
“…and “nation-building” exercises designed to overthrow nations on Riyadh’s hit list…”
should read
“…and “nation-building” exercises designed to overthrow nations on Rotten-child’s hit list…”
I agree on all counts that this site and the comments have helped me gain a better understanding, thanks all
So I hope the Chinese have finally woke up and realize the danger was never the Tibetan Buddhist. The Uighurs were the real problem the Tibetans sacrificial monkeys in the so called great game of the Norman(British)Empire. Well the thunderbolts are mounting as China, India, Russia unite to counter-repel the Great Satan moves in Western-Central Asia.
Another name for Government is Devil. Do you really think any devil will be better than another in the long run? Governments are the devils that want to be God. All governments deliver the same miserable fruit to their supporters in the long run.
I hope you are right about Europe. Besides the “refugee” problem the people over here don’t even know that the deterioration between Russia and US is as bad as flirting with WW3.
Even the Deutsche bank problems does not scare them, most don’t realise Deutsche bank will not be like Lehman brothers that went broke with grueling repercussions on the world stage. They just expect more taxes and thats it.
It actually frightens me that Western multitudes do not see the sorry state the world is in and the potential dangers that arises from that.
Has the capability to clear and logic thinking dwindeld that much over the last 25 years?
Does anyone know if EU nations (individually or collectively) have fallen into the trap of fluoridating their water? (Like most of the US…)
It appears they have found another more effective method to fluoride so likely not.
It is about time that Russia, China, and India stepped in to bring about a resolution to the Syrian conflict. The US must back off and go home.
“this cannot be done so long as there is sectarian Islamic violence in the region toppling Arab secular Islamic states”
________________________________________________________
“Sectarian Islamic violence” — that’s a curious euphemism for the US military and its various, tag-along Coalitions of the W(K)illing, no?
Methinks that the neocons overplayed their hand with their all too obvious, pre planned new “Pearl Harbor” (AKA 911) and their take down of 7 nations in 5 years strategy. Fifteen years of saying one thing and doing another has just about worn out its welcome world wide. Who is it, really, that’s being thrown under the bus? It might be more accurate to state that they are jumping under the bus. Should Hitlery manage to steal the election through voter fraud, or the American people “elect” her after promising to attack Russia and Iran, then it may be more a case of running under the bus.
Any nation that believes it can take on the entire world after sending its manufacturing to third world nations, leaving only its war machine at home, with more people working for its corrupt government than the manufacturing sector, and whose “state of the art” weaponry just doesn’t seem to work must be consuming those illegal drugs they are using to finance their blacks ops and projects.
This isn’t going to end well if we continue down this path of self destruction.
WD, sincere thanks for your posts; they’re always succinct and right to the point. I’m almost always in agreement — and you spare me the trouble of typing it out again.
Ditto what basta said, WalkingDead. Great comment!
Well said indeed!
Great post again!
Waking up to the realization that your once great nation is but a ghost of its former self and one of the main causes of the worlds ills is a painful process most are unwilling to undertake. This site and those who visit and comment here have helped me through that process a great deal and toward a better understanding of reality. Thanks!
And that is why I’m devoting my time to who’s running for local government positions. All we can do now is protect our communities from the insanity spewing from on high.
You’ve hit all the nails on the head, well said and thank you.
Ditto the above. Well said!