Konflikten i Syrien

Russia to provide active support for Syrian army to prevent terrorists from seizing Aleppo

"In a telephone conversation I told US Secretary of State John Kerry that the United States has for many months defaulted on its obligation to separate the opposition groups loyal to it from Jabhat al-Nusra (outlawed in Russia as a terrorist organization)," Lavrov said. "Unable of doing that the United States has been saying all the time that the positions of "good" and "bad" opposition groups are mixed and it has been asking us and the Syrian leadership to postpone air strikes."

"We believe that since last February there has been more than enough time for the normal opposition to separate from the terrorists (the ceasefire took effect in Syria on February 27)," he said.
"All those who have not distanced themselves from the terrorists have nobody to put the blame on but themselves. I explained that to John Kerry very clearly and emphasized the absolute need for the Americans to comply with another promise of theirs - to take action to prevent infiltrations of militants and weapons from Turkey."

” "The developments inside Aleppo and around it are is something we’d warned the Americans of well in advance," Lavrov said. "The United States knows that we will provide the most active air support for the Syrian army in order to prevent terrorists from capturing territories. We expect that our partners will be cooperating with us in earnest and by all means avoid using our regular contacts to push ahead with inconspicuously implementing some other plans - B, C, or D - behind our backs," Lavrov said.”

Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, is a greater threat to the United States in the long term than is ISIS, making the United States' current single-minded focus on the latter group misguided, a new report is charging.

Al-Nusra is "much more dangerous to the U.S. than the ISIS model in the long run," according to the authors of a report labeling both groups "existential" threats. The report was released last week by the Institute for the Study of War and American Enterprise Institute.

SPIEGEL:A surprising conclusion in your new book is that while Islamic State (IS) and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad are obvious obstacles to ending the Syrian war, in your view the biggest problem is Jabhat al-Nusra, which is allied with al-Qaida. Why is that?


Charles Lister: In the West, the threat posed by IS has become an understandable, but convenient obsession. However, Jabhat al-Nusra has embedded itself so successfully within the Syrian opposition -- within the revolution for a long time -- that in my view it has become an actor that will be much more difficult to uproot from Syria than IS. Islamic State is all about imposing its will on people, whereas al-Nusra has for the last five years been embedding itself in popular movements, sharing power in villages and cities, and giving to people rather than forcing them to do things. That has lent it a power IS just doesn't have. The reason I call IS a convenient obsession is that I don't think anybody in the West knows what to do about Jabhat al-Nusra. There was a period of time where it was relatively clear that al-Nusra had a foreign attack wing that was plotting attacks in the West.

They have never let go of their foreign vision, they have explicitly said they want to establish Islamic emirates in Syria, and they belong to an organization, al-Qaida, whose avowed goal is to attack and destroy the West. Not to establish an "Islamic State" and gradually expand it like IS, but explicitly to destroy the West.

US effectively siding with Al-Qaeda in desire to get rid of Assad – former UK ambassador to Syria
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The US is “ready to de facto ally” with its archenemies from Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria as part of its “obsession” by using “so-called moderate” moderate groups to overthrow the Syrian government, former UK ambassador to Syria, Peter Ford, told RT in an exclusive interview.

The US “is effectively siding with a branch of Al-Qaeda” in Syria, Peter Ford told RT, speaking of Washington’s recent request to Moscow not to target Al-Nusra positions with air strikes for the sake of moderate opposition groups located in the same area.

The former ambassador denounced the move as “not reasonable at all” and “grotesque.” He also sharply criticized the US for their “obsession with getting rid of Assad and the secular government in Syria” that leads them right to the alliance with “their arch-enemies” and to the loss of “all moral and practical competence.”


“We can only hope that it is a temporary aberration and they will soon return to their senses,” Ford told RT, urging the US government to abandon their policy of de facto aiding Al-Qaeda’s affiliate. He also expressed his support for Russia’s “very reasonable demand that the forces of the so-called moderate opposition disentangle themselves from the embraces of Al-Nusra and allow Al-Nusra to be bombed.”

The former ambassador also stressed that there is “virtually no difference” between Al-Nusra and such groups as Jaish al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Fatah as they are “indistinguishable” in terms of ideology, sectarian bias and their practical methods consisting of “massacres and ruthlessness.”

He also emphasized that the only difference between Al-Nusra and other groups that western countries, including the US, portray as “moderate opposition” lies in the field of tactics.

“The so-called moderate groups pay lip service to the idea that Syria might end up with a secular system after negotiations provided only that Assad will go. They pay lip service to this but anyone, who believes it must be a fool but the Americans use this as a reason or the pretext not to go after these groups,” Ford said.

‘US working on behalf of Al-Nusra terrorists in Syria’
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Al-Nusra has been on the US terrorist watch list since 2012, Karen Kwiatkowski, retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, told RT. Asking Russia not to bomb it, is indicating that US is in working on behalf of the extremist organization, she added.

GABBARD: Well, first, you said the U.S. is training forces in Syria against Assad.

I have been a vocal critic of that. I think that is a war that we should not be engaged in. We should not be trying to overthrow the Syrian government of Assad, because this actually helps ISIS, helps al Qaeda, al-Nusra and these other jihadist groups to achieve their objective of taking over all of Syria, to speak of the fact that it's worsening the refugee crisis.

It's increasing human suffering and chaos in Syria. What we should be doing is having our special forces continue their work with the Kurds, with these Syrian Arabs to be able to go in and take places like Raqqa back from ISIS and al Qaeda and focus all of our resources and energy on that fight.

BLITZER: Because most of these rebels, they hate ISIS, but they hate the Bashar al-Assad regime even more, as you know.

GABBARD: That may be true for some, but the reality is that al-Nusra and al Qaeda have integrated themselves so deeply within the Syrian community simply because the United States has not been targeting al Qaeda.

For some reason, we have only been targeting ISIS in Syria, taking our eye off the ball of the enemy that attacked us on 9/11.