Konflikten i Syrien

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Russian weapons sent to Syria pose no threat to Israel.

Netanyahu's visit to Putin's private residence in Novo-Ogaryovo came as Russia signaled its intentions to better arm and help the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Netanyahu, in public comments after his meeting with Putin, said Iran and Syria have given weapons to Hezbollah, which has fired "thousands" of rockets at Israel.

"Iran, under the auspices of the Syrian army, is attempting to build a second terrorist front against us from the Golan Heights," Netanyahu said.

Russia has deployed 28 combat planes in Syria, US officials said Monday, and a source in Moscow said 2,000 Russian military personnel would be sent to an airbase near the main port city of Latakia, as fears grow over Moscow’s increasing military presence in the war-torn nation.

About 70 U.S.-trained rebels have returned to Syria after receiving training in Turkey, crossing the border in gun-mounted four-wheel drives, the U.S. military's Central Command said Monday.The development comes as U.S. administration has been struggling to defend its military strategy in Syria, directed against the Islamic State militant group with an air campaign and programs to train, assist and equip local forces. Last week, U.S. Central Command spokesman Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder said that about 100 Syrian recruits were completing their U.S.-led training programs and that most would soon be in Syria.Central Command said in a news release that about 70 graduates of the Syria Train and Equip program had re-entered Syria with their weapons and equipment and were operating as New Syrian Forces alongside Syrian Kurds, Sunni Arab and other anti-Islamic State forces.

For all the talk of Barack Obama’s anti-Isis coalition, the facts on the ground have long pointed to Kurdish militias as the enemy most feared by the savage devotees of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the armed wing of the autonomous government of Syrian Kurdistan – are the only force to have won successive victories against Isis in the past year. Some 200 villages and towns in the north-east of Syria were recaptured by the YPG in May alone. Among such victories have been strategically vital displays of strength, from the defence of Kobani in late 2014, to the taking of Tal Abyad – another crucial town on the Turkish-Syrian border – three months ago. And the Kurdish surge is by no means over

There are lots of interesting elements to that passage: for one, the dubious conflation of Russia's various southern security/geopolitical concerns (e.g. Georgia, Dagestan, the Caspian) with ISIS. And also the reference to the Volga, which may sound like he thinks the Tatar/Bashkir regions of Russia could be potential future hotbeds of Islamist terror.

Nej det låter inte heller bekant att Ryssland skulle ha hotat med att inte skydda dessa länder. Visa mig det är du snäll? Varför skulle IS ens bry sig om att hemsöka dessa länder? Att det är en maffia som styr Kreml är det ingen snack om.

Judging by the statements made by the summit's participants, the CSTO is serious about the ISIS problem. For example, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was alarmed by the increasing number of CSTO member-country citizens fighting for the extremists, while CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha said that CSTO special services have identified (and blocked) more than 57 websites created to recruit Central Asian residents into the ranks of ISIS.
At the same time, Alexei Malashenko believes that the threat to Central Asia posed by the group has been rather exaggerated.
"Today the ISIS militias are warring in Syria and Iraq and are practically fighting for the survival of their quasi-state. Yes, there have been declarations of expansion, including expansion into Central Asia, but for now they've only been declarations,” he said.
“There is the danger of ISIS entering the region but the mass media exaggerates it. The Islamists' success or failure in Central Asia depends largely on how effectively the regimes in that region will solve the existing social problems, how they will fight corruption and poverty."