Cyprus-Forum.com

[Paphitis]

Well it doesn't work that way.

The USA isn't gonna hand the Middle East over to Russia and Iran.

If it does, then we are very close to a major war because Israel won't have a bar of it, not to mention the allies.

You're in for another major disappointment like your loss in Aleppo!

[Robin Hood]

Well it doesn't work that way.

That is exactly the way it works ....... when you can't get all that you want compromise and get the best you can out of it.

The USA isn't gonna hand the Middle East over to Russia and Iran.

You are reading what isn't there! Who said ME ...... Syria is one country that the US now realizes will not fall to US 'Regime Change'.

If it does, then we are very close to a major war because Israel won't have a bar of it, not to mention the allies.

If Israel will not go to war over Syria, simply because the Russians would be too big an opponent for them to take on on their own. They would need US backup ..... which the US would make clear they would not get because the US does not want WWIII, any more than the Russians.

You're in for another major disappointment like your loss in Aleppo!

I will remind you of this comment when Aleppo falls to the Syrian Arab Army and their Allies.

'Loss in Aleppo' ? 'Eastern Aleppo's terrorist area is shrinking day-by-day, and without the need for air power for the last month!

[miltiades]

" Beirut: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has welcomed Donald Trump's election victory, believing it has saved him from an interventionist Hillary Clinton administration.

Mr Trump's win may have already shifted the course of the Russian-backed military campaign in Aleppo. A senior pro-Assad official told Reuters that plans to capture the rebel-held east by January were shaped around an assumption that Mrs Clinton would win."

"Mr Trump has questioned the wisdom of backing rebels, played down the US goal of getting Mr Assad out of power, and noted that while he didn't like him, "Assad is killing ISIS" with Iran and Russia. ISIS is an acronym for Islamic State."

http://www.smh.com.au/world/war-in-syri ... snqvw.html

[Robin Hood]

Russia Puts Strategic Bombers On Combat Alert For Imminent Strikes On Syrian Targets

While America is busy pointing fingers at who exactly failed to predict the Trump presidency, Putin is taking advantage of the chaos and the immediate political power vacuum left in the aftermath of the stunning transition from the Democratic president to a Republican sweep.

First, as we reported last night, NATO promptly freaked out after Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged President-elect Donald Trump to begin rebuilding the U.S.-Kremlin relationship "by urging NATO to withdraw forces from the Russian border." Peskov told the Associated Press that such a move "would lead to a kind of detente in Europe."

Second, fast forward to this morning when Russian Tass news agency reported that the crews of Russian strategic bombers Tu-160 and Tu-95 located at the "Engels" airbase, have been put on combat readiness, in preparation for imminent strikes on targets in Syria. Tass adds that the Russian strategic bombers have been armed with cruise missiles.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-13/

Overview of Military Situation in Aleppo City on November 13, 2016 (Maps, Videos, Photos)

The Syrian army’s Tiger Forces, the Desert Hawks Brigade, Hezbollah, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) and other pro-government groups are reportedly preparing to relaunch offensive operations in multiple fronts inside and outside the Syrian city of Aleppo. The operation will be supported by the Syrian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Forces from the air and by Russian and Iranian military advisers on the ground.

The army and its allies, using loud speakers, ordered militants remaining in eastern Aleppo to lay down arms and to surrender. If militants avoid to do this within 24 hours, the government forces will relaunch operations in the area.

Following the collapse of Jaish al-Fatah’s defenses in the al-Assad and Minyan areas of Aleppo city, the army and its allies already achieved some gains in the southern Aleppo countryside, seizing the villages of Kafr Haddad and Khirbat Al-Zuwari.

https://southfront.org/overview-of-mili ... r-13-2016/

[kurupetos]

There are a lot of question marks here, after Trump's victory.

Hope we will soon get some serious answers...

[Robin Hood]

There are a lot of question marks here, after Trump's victory.

Hope we will soon get some serious answers...

This is not bad for a starter ............. at least he seems to have a practical approach to problems ?

Trump likely to end aid for rebels fighting Syrian government - By DAVID E. SANGER

President-elect Donald J. Trump said Friday that he was likely to abandon the American effort to support “moderate” opposition groups in Syria who are battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, saying “we have no idea who these people are.” He should have asked Paphitis ..... he would know !

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal that dealt largely with economic issues, including his willingness to retain parts of the Affordable Care Act, he repeated a position he took often during his campaign: that the United States should focus on defeating the Islamic State, and find common ground with the Syrians and their Russian backers.

“I’ve had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria,” Mr. Trump told The Journal. “My attitude was you’re fighting Syria, Syria is fighting ISIS, and you have to get rid of ISIS. Russia is now totally aligned with Syria, and now you have Iran, which is becoming powerful, because of us, is aligned with Syria.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45835.htm

[miltiades]

There are a lot of question marks here, after Trump's victory.

Hope we will soon get some serious answers...

This is not bad for a starter ............. at least he seems to have a practical approach to problems ?

Trump likely to end aid for rebels fighting Syrian government - By DAVID E. SANGER

President-elect Donald J. Trump said Friday that he was likely to abandon the American effort to support “moderate” opposition groups in Syria who are battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, saying “we have no idea who these people are.” He should have asked Paphitis ..... he would know !

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal that dealt largely with economic issues, including his willingness to retain parts of the Affordable Care Act, he repeated a position he took often during his campaign: that the United States should focus on defeating the Islamic State, and find common ground with the Syrians and their Russian backers.

“I’ve had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria,” Mr. Trump told The Journal. “My attitude was you’re fighting Syria, Syria is fighting ISIS, and you have to get rid of ISIS. Russia is now totally aligned with Syria, and now you have Iran, which is becoming powerful, because of us, is aligned with Syria.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45835.htm

Mr Trump's views on the Syrian issue concur with everyone's views on the CY Forum, everyone that is apart from ...Paphitis
May I also say that Trump's statement proves that he is by no means an idiot as ....some on here have referred to him especially you know who. Sorry mate just had to say it.

[Robin Hood]

An interesting interview with Stafan de Mistura by Stephan Sakur on Hardtalk this morning. I don't have a link but it will be repeated at least twice more today on BBC World News.

Sakur is very obviously anti-Assad, anti-Putin and anti-Russia, I found the way he addressed de Mistura as bordering on offensive ...... with his usual exasperated "....do you mean to tell me that ....blah .... blah .... blah". Mistura is the UN representative who was prepared to go into East Aleppo and act as a hostage virtually, if the 900 Al-Nusra terrorists stopped fighting and agreed to leave Aleppo with their weapons.

It started with Trumps election and his policies which immediately got onto the Syria conflict. This is worth listening to and shows how a heavily biased reporter can get shot down by an experienced and pragmatic diplomat/politician !

[yialousa1971]

CONFIRMED: Russia prepares heavy bombers, Syrian Army gives Jihadis 24 hours to surrender

ALEXANDER MERCOURIS
1 day ago 6 2118

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There are growing signs that what looks like a big Syrian government offensive in Aleppo is in the works.

The Syrian army has been broadcasting messages to the trapped Jihadis in eastern Aleppo via loudspeakers all day giving them just 24 hours to lay down their arms.

There are also reports of more elite Syrian troops from the Tiger forces and the Desert Hawks Special Forces units being concentrated in Aleppo. They are apparently being reinforced by well trained Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon.

There is also an indeterminate number of Shiite militia fighters brought to the area of Aleppo from Iraq, though it seems that they are being given secondary support roles, and that most of the fighting on the front line will be carried out by the Syrian army.

In addition there are also reports of Russian and Iranian staff officers arriving in the city to help coordinate the fighting.

Meanwhile the captains of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and the nuclear powered missile battle cruiser Pyotr Veliky have both been talking to the Russian media.

Sergey Artamonov, the Admiral Kuznetsov's captain, is reported to have confirmed that aircraft from the carrier have been flying over Syria for four days. He described the reason for their flights as follows
"The flights are performed from the deck of the aircraft-carrying heavy cruiser. Interaction with a coastal airfield is being worked out."
The "coastal airfield" is clearly Russia's Khmeimim air base in Syria's Latakia province, which is the air base the Russians mainly use for the strikes they carry out in Syria.

The Russians do not have any experience of carrying out air strikes on ground targets from aircraft carriers, or of coordinating such strikes with ground bases. It seems that they have been using the last four days to work out systems of coordination between the two separate services involved (the Russian Aerospace Forces in Khmeimim and Russian Naval Aviation on board the Admiral Kuznetsov) and to iron out any resulting communications and coordination problems before they go jointly into action.

Recently I said that one of the major reasons for involving the Admiral Kuznetsov in the operation was to give the Russians training and experience in carrier based ground strikes, something which they have never done before. Captain Artamonov's words appear to bear this out.

Meanwhile Pyotr Veliky's captain, Captain Vladislav Malakhovsky, has also been speaking to the Russian media. He is reported as saying the following
"Nobody is flying above us. Everybody is afraid of approaching us closer than 50 kilometers, understanding the might of the cruisers (Pyotr Veliky and Admiral Kuznetsov)".
These words appear to confirm that the primary mission of the Pyotr Veliky battlecruiser is - as the Saker recently correctly said - to provide the fleet air defence with its formidable S-300 anti aircraft missile battery. From what Captain Makakhovsky is saying, it is succeeding.

The fact that the Russian Defence Ministry has authorised the captains of the two most powerful warships in the Russian fleet to speak to the media is perhaps the single strongest indicator that a big attack is coming.

Another even stronger indicator that such a big attack is indeed coming is that there are reports that Russia's heaviest bombers - its TU160 supersonic and its TU95 subsonic bombers - are being loaded with cruise missiles in preparation for a major strike.

The main focus of the coming attack seems to be the Al-Qaeda controlled town of Khan Tuman near Aleppo, which following its capture by Jihadi fighters in May has become the main base for the Al-Qaeda led Jihadi offensives against south west Aleppo.

However the fact that the Syrian military is calling on the Jihadis in eastern Aleppo to surrender as well may be a sign that the Syrian army is planning to launch an attack on them there as well.


http://theduran.com/confirmed-russia-pr ... surrender/

[Paphitis]

Still they appear to be chasing shadows. They bomb but nothing changes on the ground. Our Rebels are well drilled and we will still be talking about this quagmire in 12 months time by which time the Coalition would have already liberated Mosul and Raqqa and just sitting back laughing at Pootin telling Trump he looks forward to better relations.

Sure, lets have better relations after a comprehensive peace settlement.

Fact is, Trump doesn't like Lootin. He only respected Pootin as a "stronger" leader than Obama.

Obama however, might look weak because he actually strategized and swung the pendulum in favour of Coalition interests.

Coalition has the upper hand and I tried to tell everyone that this will be the case with the fullness of time.