August 29, 2016

Lame U.S. Tries To Wash Its Hands Off Of Turkey's Operation ISIS Shield, As Iran, Assad, And Russia Look On With Approval

Number of ISIS terrorists killed by Obama and Erdogan = Zero.

An excerpt from, "Turkish forces deepen push into Syria, draw U.S. rebuke over their target" by Lisa Barrington and Umit Bektas, Reuters, August 29, 2016:
Turkish-backed forces pushed deeper into northern Syria on Monday and drew a rebuke from NATO ally the United States, which said it was concerned the battle for territory had shifted away from targeting Islamic State.

At the start of Turkey's now almost week-long cross-border offensive, Turkish tanks, artillery and warplanes provided Syrian rebel allies with the firepower to capture swiftly the Syrian frontier town of Jarablus from Islamic State militants.

Since then, Turkish forces have mainly pushed into areas controlled by fighters aligned to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition that encompasses the Kurdish YPG militia and which has been backed by Washington to fight the jihadists.
An excerpt from, "Moscow doesn’t want the Kurds to be too strong or too weak: Russian analyst" ARA News, August 28, 2016:
“Those statements are just usual rhetoric; it is always necessary to see if the words fit with the deed. I think now Russia wouldn’t mind that Kurdish positions be a little weakened by Turkey, but not to the extent that would render Kurds ineffective against other opposition groups in Syria. In short, Russia doesn’t want to see Kurds both as too weak and too strong,” he said.
An excerpt from, "Report: Iran Mediating Reconciliation Between Turkey, Syria" By Ali Waked, Breitbart, August 24, 2016:
The newspaper reported that Iranian sources in Turkey confirmed the reports of secret contacts between representatives of Syrian President Bashar Assad and representatives of the Turkish government. These contacts are intended to bring about a reconciliation between Assad and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to Asharq Al-Awsat, a senior diplomat is leading the discussions from the Turkish side, along with Ismail Haqi, a Turkish army general who led negotiations with Syria during the 1998 crisis between the two countries over the leader of Kurdish PKK activists Abdullah Ocalan.

Haqi visited Damascus and met with senior Syrian officials, including the number two man of the ruling Ba’ath party, Abdullah Alahmar, and the commander of Syria’s National Security Council, general Ali Mamluk, as well as Foreign Minister Walid Muallam.