"Syria:
Outside Patronage and a New Offensive for the Regime is republished
with permission of Stratfor."
Syria: Outside Patronage and a New Offensive for the Regime
May 20, 2013 | 1005
Summary
The battle for the
Syrian city of Al-Qusayr, which came under regime artillery fire May 19, is
actually part of a larger battle for the highly coveted Homs governorate. As we noted in 2012, the battle has
wide-reaching ramifications for the Syrian rebels since Al-Qusayr sits along a
major transit point for rebel supplies and reinforcements coming in from Lebanon.
But it is equally important to loyalist forces. If the Syrian regime loses
control of the Orontes River Valley and its major road junctions, Damascus will
be largely cut off from Aleppo and the Alawite-dominated coast, which would
limit the regime's access to supply lines from port cities.
The regime's renewed
offensive against Al-Qusayr was made possible by support from Iran, Russia and
Hezbollah. However, geography will determine which side holds the advantage. In
northern and eastern Syria, the regime remains on the defensive; in the core,
the advantage clearly belongs to the loyalists. With the country squarely
divided, the Syrian civil war will continue to be a protracted conflict -- even
as the regime prevails in Al-Qusayr.
Analysis
Supported by Hezbollah
fighters, loyalist forces began their offensive against Al-Qusayr with a
barrage of artillery fire. Given that the rebels are entrenched in static
positions throughout the city, massed artillery fire can have a particularly
devastating effect. Regime forces are largely deployed to the north and east of
the city, while fighters affiliated with Hezbollah are reportedly advancing on
the city from the south and west.
Hezbollah has long been
involved in the fight over Homs, but the May 19 offensive marks a clear
escalation in Hezbollah's involvement. Tensions in Lebanon have grown alongside
this increased involvement. For example, rebels struck the Lebanese town of
Hermel with rocket artillery on May 19. And the anger Lebanese Sunnis feel toward Hezbollah
threatens to spill over into a full-blown armed conflict.
External Support
Al-Qusayr is not the only
theater in which al Assad has received considerable external support. Iran and
Russia continue to deliver much-needed material and equipment,
including spare parts needed to maintain the regime's critical advantage over
the rebels: the air force. Tehran and Moscow also have
reportedly played a major role in giving economic support, which is used to
fund the war effort and pay hefty salaries to security forces.
External help also
enabled Syria to create a new militia, known as the National Defense Force, to
offset the losses incurred by the army. With the help of Iranian and Hezbollah
advisers, the regime was able to rapidly train and deploy members of this
militia. The National Defense Force has brought reliable manpower to the
loyalist cause, but equally important, it has helped free up the conventional
army to execute difficult offensive operations.
Controlling Homs
In the battle for Homs, external support gives the regime the military edge. But despite this superiority, the regime probably will not stamp out the rebel resistance entirely, even if it retakes Al-Qusayr. Time and again the rebels have demonstrated a talent for retreating from areas in which the regime musters overwhelming force. The regime has been careful to surround Al-Qusayr from all directions, but the rebels will continue to escape through regime gaps into the countryside or to other rebel strongholds in Homs, such as Rastan and Talbiseh.
However, thanks to considerable Hezbollah aid, the regime has largely subdued rebel operations in the Homs governorate, a goal it has tried to achieve since the early stages of the rebellion. Control over Homs will enable al Assad to rapidly move forces from the north to the south to meet emerging rebel threats. It will also provide a key avenue of retreat to the Alawite coast in the event that he needs to flee Damascus. -- [Stratfor, May 20, 2013]
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Recent Developments May 12 – 21, 2013:
On Sunday May 12, 2013, Russian Navy Admiral Viktor Chirkov stated to the effect that Russia is now increasing its Mediterranean presence from 3 warships that regularly port in Syria, to 5 or 6, not counting nuclear submarines armed with Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles which are also expected to be deployed to the Mediterranean’s Russian Home Port in Syria.
http://www.debka.com/article/22965/Russia-staffs-Mediterranean-fleet-Turkey-weighs-payback-for-Syrian-bombings
On Tuesday May 14, 2013
http://www.debka.com/article/22963/Putin-again-warns-Netanyahu-hands-off-Syria
Debkafile reported that Russian President Putin was indeed escalating the stakes for anyone wishing to externally overthrow Syria’s sovereignty. Debkafile stated:
“Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spent three hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin at his residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Tuesday, May, 14. He came for a last-ditch attempt to head off the supply of advanced Russian anti-air S-300 missile systems to Syria. Instead, the Russian leader turned the conversation around to focus implicitly on Israel’s air strikes against Damascus on May 3 and May 5. After their conversation he issued a warning: "In this crucial period it is especially important to avoid any moves that can shake the situation."
This was clearly a hands-off caution to Israel not to repeat its attacks on Damascus. And, furthermore, after “shaking the situation” in Syria by its air attacks, Israel was in no position to demand that Russia avoid selling Syria advanced weapons.
The prime minister, for his part, warned that the entire Middle East was in a dangerous state of volatility.
He was accompanied by Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi. Opposite him sat Mikhail Fradkov, SVR Director.
… Russian diplomats leaked to the London-based Arab press a report that the S-300 missiles had already arrived in Syria. According to Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Moscow had delivered 200 launchers (probably missiles) and the Syrian missile teams already knew how to use them.
... The S-300 is designed to shoot down planes and missiles at 200-km ranges.
Israel is concerned that Moscow may decided to send the six S-300 batteries carrying 144 missiles due for Syria along with Russian missile and air defense specialists. They will also be available for operating the missiles effectively for downing Israeli Air Force planes striking targets in Syria and Lebanon. Israel will be forced to think twice before attacking the S-300 batteries for fear of hitting the Russian officers. Putin is therefore placing a severe constraint on Israel’s operational freedom by spreading an anti-air missile cover over the Syrian, Hizballah and the Iranian Basij forces fighting for Bashar Assad.”
On Saturday May 18, 2013, Israel’s leadership appears to be coming to its senses, and realizing that Obama’s policies regarding over-throwing Syria are so dangerous, that they are beyond comprehension as to the danger they would definitively have to the very existence of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
http://www.debka.com/article/22978/Muddled-Israeli-US-policies-on-Assad-set-stage-for-Golan-offensive-against-Israel-
Debkafile reports that:
“Four days after a “senior Israeli official” warned Assad through The New York Times of Wednesday, May 15 that he risks forfeiting power if he retaliates for Israeli attacks on weapons supplies to terrorists, “Israeli officials” were telling the London Times of Saturday, May 18 something quite different: “An intact, but weakened, Assad regime would be preferable,” they said. “Better the devil we know than the demons we can only imagine if… extremists from across the Arab world gain a foothold there.”
…At all events, the Syrian civil conflict appears poised ready to spill over to one or more of its neighbors…Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah in one of his fiery speeches expressed eagerness to make the Golan his new front for war on Israel. And Friday, May 17, it was reported in Tehran that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had entrusted Al Qods Brigades commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani with the task of sending troops to the Golan to embark on hostilities against Israel.
Once they begin, it will be hard to stop the violence from spreading to Israel’s borders with Lebanon, from Syria into Turkey and from Jordan into Syria and Iraq.”
On Sunday May19, 2013
http://www.debka.com/article/22980/Syrian-Hizballah%E2%80%99s-capture-of-Qusayr-opens-direct-weapons-route-to-Lebanon
Debkafile reports that
“Shortly after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pledged Sunday, May 19, to maintain Israeli operations in Syria against the passage of advanced Iranian weapons to the Lebanese Hizballah, Syrian troops and their Hizballah comrades stormed Al-Qasayr, the northwestern town which commands the high road from Syrian Homs to Lebanon’s Hermel Mountains.
This was a major victory: Iranian arms for Hizballah can now go through from Syria to destination unobstructed.
In more than two years of battling the Assad regime, this was one of the rebels’ most devastating losses after three weeks of bitter fighting and the last of a whole row of recent setbacks.
Bashar Assad in contrast has gained huge advantages from his al Qusayr victory, as debkafile’s military sources report:
1. It cuts off the Syrian rebels’ main supply and communications route via Lebanon through which their Arab backers Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE to send them fighters, arms and funds.
2. Rebel positions in the nearby town of Homs become increasingly vulnerable, as the Syrian army regains control of the main highway links between Damascus, Homs and Aleppo. Qusayr also links Damascus with the Mediterranean coast, where Alawites and other regime loyalists are concentrated.
3. After the rebels were pushed out of Al-Qasayr, Turkey remains their only accessible source of supplies.
…4. For Israel, the fall of al Qusayr means that while rebel supply routes are shut down, supply routes open up for the free movement of Iranian weapons from Syria straight to HIzballah strongholds in Lebanon. This would be Hizballah’s reward for its military aid to Assad’s army.
If Prime Minister Netanyahu was serious about his promise Sunday to cut off Hizballah’s weapon routes from Syria, he has three primary options to choose from – none of them easy, to say the least.
a) Military intervention in al Qusayr before the Syrian army and Hizballah clinch their takeover of this strategic byway town. This would catapult Israel into full-blown war with Syria and Hizballah and is therefore a non-starter.
b) Bombardment of the convoys carrying arms from Syria to Lebanon.
…c) Attacks on the destination of those weapons – Hizballah depots in the Hermel – after their delivery. This would almost certainly trigger Hizballah war action against Israel.”
On Monday May 20 - Tuesday May 21, 2013 (circa 2 a.m.),
http://www.debka.com/article/22982/Yaalon-We-destroyed-Syrian-Golan-position-Damascus-We-fired-on-Israeli-patrol
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168169#.UZuP42eAbps
the Golan Heights erupted in gunfire from an Israeli patrol against a sortie by the Syrians. An Israeli “Tamuz” missile took out the Syrian position, and an Israeli armored vehicle was shot up. The Daily Star of Lebanon cites the armored vehicle as being an Israeli tank.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/May-21/217876-syria-claims-destroyed-tank-inside-its-territory.ashx#axzz2TwGm4GUC
Israel claims none of its soldiers were killed and that source of gunfire was taken out (with an unknown number of dead, though we may surmise that it was likely only a few).
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/May-21/217862-syria-submits-five-names-for-possible-peace-talks-sources.ashx#axzz2TwGm4GUC
that Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi of Syria has asked that there be peace talks, and had previously submitted his name and that of 4 others as negotiators for Peace Talks to be held in Geneva. The French response was that some of the names proposed by the Syrian regime were "unacceptable".The opposition is to meet in Istanbul on Thursday [May 23, 2013] to decide on whether to participate in the peace conference.
And considering that Obama is driving an inevitable unnecessary and unwarranted escalation in which Iran and Russia will aligning for war against the United States over this, and that most of continental Europe will side with Russia and forever shatter the NATO compact because of the international lawlessness of Obama as a one who has now made the United States as a State sponsor of terrorism, it would be a good idea to further the Peace Talks suggestion. Personally, I would rather the entire Al Qaeda and other externals invasion force into Syria’s sovereignty, minus U.S. and Israeli personnel, be rounded up and summarily executed. They have massacred tens of thousands of Christians in Syria and many tens of thousands of other Syrian nationals for no other reason than sheer barbarity as the expression of their faith to make others submit to their criminal cultism or be killed, with no other option.
In effect, Obama, by giving these Al Qaeda and other terrorists invading Syria that material support which brought with it complications that got 4 U.S. citizens, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya killed. It is my belief that Obama is legitimately chargeable with war crimes against Syria, and with high crimes and misdemeanors against citizens of the United States.
President Bush had Congressional Authorization to do whatever it took against what he thought were terrorists that attacked us on 9/11/2001. President Bush had United Nations resolutions, and de facto Congressional authorization regarding Iraq, not to mention we had cause as a recent conquering power in a previous war authorized by the United Nations and were being fired upon by Saddam Hussein as we patrolled and enforced a treaty established "no-fly zone" which our forces were permitted to fly and enforce.
When Iran was revealed to have Yellow-cake Uranium, there was the cry of alarm and universal concern that it is sufficient material to further Iran’s Nuclear program, and that a shipment of 45 tons was convertible to a material for at least several atomic bombs…and yet Iraq is known to have had 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium, more than 12 times the grave concern of Iran converting the same substance, and the which the United States shipped out at a cost of $70,000,000 and gave to a firm in Canada. The yellow-cake uranium, the reason why we are concerned about Iran now and were concerned with Iraq then as part of the reason why we invaded Iraq...well that yellow-cake uranium WAS THERE!!!
As I posted on December 6, 2010
http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2010/12/iran-purifies-fraction-of-yellowcake.html
On December 06, 2010, Israel's Intelligence Media DEBKAfile led with the headline:
Two forward leaps bring Iran weeks away from weapons-grade uranium
http://www.debka.com/article/20431/
DEBKAfile expressed concern over the successful processing of yellow-cake Uranium, that enough to manufacture 28.2 kilos (just over exactly 62 lbs) of 90 percent weapons grade uranium, can be achieved as early as February 2011. Earlier this year, on February 28, 2010, DEBKAfile reported that the deep concern that 45 tons of yellowcake Uranium was on its way from North Korea (by way of China
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3903101 ) to Syria when Israel took out the Syrian Nuclear reactor.
Institute for Science and International Security President David Albright was quoted as stating
"45 tons of yellowcake is enough for several nuclear bombs",
and that
"89 to 130 kilograms [195.8 to 286 lbs] of weapons-grade uranium could be produced if 45 tons of yellowcake is further processed into uranium hexafluoride and is enriched."
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3903101
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20100301_3546.php
So if 45 tons of yellow-cake is cause for deep concern, why all the apathy in America for what the United States seized in Iraq? Why all the hatred of George Bush from the Left, and the lack of apologists from the Right?
Iraq had 550 metric tons of Yellow-cake Uranium in its possession (MSNBC July 05, 2008)
at its former Tuwaitha nuclear power plant 12 miles south of Baghdad, and that yellowcake was more than sufficiently salvageable so as to be sold to a Canadian energy firm, Cameco Corp, and shipped out on 37 US military transports at a cost of some $70,000,000 dollars (CNN July 07, 2008)
http://articles.cnn.com/2008-07-07/us/iraq.uranium_1_yellowcake-uranium-cameco?_s=PM:US
just for the shipping costs all that Yellowcake Uranium from Iraq to Montreal in 3500 barrels.
Does that Yellowcake sound like it has been isotopically neutered, and is worthless? Absolutely not.
In other words,
in July of 2008 we learned that enough weapons of mass destruction base material to process into 2388 to 3489 lbs of weapons grade uranium, or enough to make 38 to 56 nuclear bombs, was shipped out of Iraq and sold to the Canadians by the Bush Administration...and jackasses in the Media and in Congress, with pure partisan hate-America agendas, refuse to report the facts of the story.
So what's their excuse? Is it to the effect of: ..."Well, 2008 was an election year, and we had to do whatever it took to get a Dem in the White House, qualified or not, credible or not, unvetted and so what?" Is that it? Damn right, it was.
It seems that the Liberals and the Media cannot confront Iran because of its Iraq yellow-cake Uranium guilt. If yellow-cake and Iraq is brought up, the Communist-Socialists of the Media and their pre and post-paid propaganda pundits seem to suddenly only wish to selectively remember and quote verbatim a pop-news magazine that TIME has become, in regard to this issue of whether or not there was any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when the US invaded. They refer back to a July 09, 2003 article, and apparently disregard any future facts and insights learned about the issue since that time.
http://www.time.com/time/columnist/karon/article/0,9565,463779,00.html
Thus I wrote on December 6, 2010.
Briefly, just regarding U.S. Law and authorization for President Bush by comparison.
President Bush on September 14, 2001, issued Proclamation No. 7463, 66 Fed. Reg. 48,199 (Sept. 14, 2001) in response to the 9-11 attacks. The Congressional Intelligence Committee was then briefed, and in turn, have briefed others who succeeded them.
Congress formally legalized President Bush with Pub. L. No. 107-40, 115 Stat. 224(2001) which states: The “President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons” { Authorization for Use of Military Force (“the AUMF”), 115 Stat. 224}
That is, President Bush was legally authorized to, "in good faith", be wrong about Iraq, if he made that mistake. That is a clear distinction that gives Bush a legal pass that Obama does NOT have.
US Constitutional Law mandates that the obligation of The President of the United States, is that it is his legal obligation and of the highest interest of the US Government to ENSURE the Security of the USA against Foreign Enemies: Haig v. Agee, 453 U.S. 280 (1981) @ 307 (citing Aptheker v. Sec’y of State, 378 U.S. 500 (1964) @ 509 ); accord Cole v. Young, 351 U.S. 536 (1956) @ 546.
In one of his first major acts in 2009, Obama violated America's trust in releasing top secret reports caused the Bush Anti-Terror Memos
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/obama-releases-secret-bush-antiterror-memos/430194/0
that aid America’s enemies, specifically and especially Al Qaeda and other terrorists as well as hostile nation states, and hindered our intelligence gathering capabilities.
Chicago & S. Air Lines v. Waterman S.S. Corp., 333 U.S. 103 (1948) @ 111 states: “The President, both as Commander-in-Chief and as the Nation’s organ for foreign affairs, has available intelligence services whose reports are not and ought not to be published to the world.”.
George W. Bush fulfilled U.S. Law when attacking another nation or utilizing U.S. resources and foreign alliances against it...Obama has violated it.
In contrast, Obama is standing over Syria on behalf of terrorists who are massacring going on 80,000 - 100,000 human beings, particularly Christians and other Syrian Nationals in a form of genocide with NO Congressional authorization and NO United Nations Resolutions authority to be there, and who has made the United States as a Nation State sponsor of terror by his specific policies and by the Al Qaeda terrorists whom he supports, which Congress had previously authorized President Bush to fight and destroy. Instead, Obama aids and abets the same enemy organization credited as responsible for the 09/11/2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
For years Democrats labeled President Bush as a War Criminal, but instead, they nominate and ram forth through fraud after fraud to give us a lawless man, not even Constitutionally Qualified to be President (who is not a United States Natural Born Citizen and only has birth and Social Security Identity Fraud documents that cannot even be submitted in a U.S. Court of Law.)
As one U.S. Citizen put up the money to voice his opinion and rightly insists, to which I thank them for so saying, we should:
"IMPEACH OBAMA NOW!!"
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