Top Syrian Catholic bishop: 'Russian operation in Syria is our salvation'

The majority of Syrian people support Moscow's anti-terror campaign, the top Catholic bishop in Syria said in an interview, adding that it's not only military assistance, but the promotion of peace process by Russia that they pin their hopes on.
"We see Russia's military operation as a real effort to fight terrorism. What is especially important is that this military campaign goes in parallel with promotion of peace process," Most Reverend Georges Abou Khazen, Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo for the Latins who was appointed by Pope Francis in 2013, told in a telephone interview. "We really hope that the peace process will soon prevail over fighting all across Syria," the bishop added.

"The majority of Syrian people" of all backgrounds and faith "regard Russian military campaign as salvation, a way out of the state we've been enduring for five years," the Catholic bishop said, adding that "Syrians are very positive about it."

"Russia's actions are not limited to the military operation. Russia makes a very positive impact by stimulating the negotiations process, and promotes dialogue between various Syrian groups," Bisoph Abou Khazen said.

Pope Francis to Russian Patriarch: "We hope Putin will save Christianity"

https://www.rt.com/news/332922-aleppo-bishop-russia-support/

Syrian rebels say reinforcements get free passage via Turkey

February 18, 2016



At least 2,000 Syrian rebel fighters have re-entered the country from Turkey over the last week to reinforce insurgents fending off an assault by Syrian Kurdish militias, rebel sources said on Thursday.

The rebel fighters, with weapons and vehicles, have been covertly escorted across the border by Turkish forces over several nights before heading into the embattled rebel stronghold of Azaz, the sources said.

"We have been allowed to move everything from light weapons to heavy equipment mortars and missiles and our tanks," Abu Issa, a commander in the Levant Front, the rebel group that runs the border crossing of Bab al-Salam, told Reuters, giving his alias and talking on condition of anonymity.

"There is tight security on the four-hour drive from one border crossing to the other," he added, saying rebels being transported excluded the hardline Jabhat al-Nusra Front fighters and other jihadist groups.

A Turkish security source confirmed fighters had crossed the border but put the numbers at 400-500 and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence across the war torn-country, also said hundreds had crossed.

On Sunday, the Syrian government had said Turkish forces were among 100 gunmen who had entered Syria accompanied by 12 pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns in an ongoing supply operation to insurgents. The route across Turkey has become the only path for rebels to their north Aleppo enclave after recent Syrian army advances closed the main route into rebel territory.

Another rebel source said the Turkish military have stepped up delivery of munitions and heavy military hardware in the last two days to bolster rebels facing the major offensive launched by the Syrian army and its allies.

The Syrian army wants to seal it off altogether and reassert full control of Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war.

Inside Aleppo city, heavy clashes continued between Arab insurgent groups and Syrian Kurdish fighters in Kurdish-held neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, the Syrian Observatory said. The assault has helped the Syrian army come within 25 miles of the Turkish border for the first time in over two years.

Russian bombing has transformed the almost five-year-old civil war in recent weeks, turning the momentum decisively in favor of Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad. But the rapid advance of US-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, taking advantage of Russian air strikes to seize territory near the Turkish border, has infuriated Ankara and threatened to drive a wedge between NATO allies.

Turkey sees the militia as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decade fight for autonomy in Turkey's mainly Kurdish Southeast. Determined to prevent the YPG from gaining a foothold on its border, Turkey has shelled its positions in response to what it says is fire coming across the border.

Turkey has also stepped up deliveries of military hardware to the rebels, another rebel source said. "We are getting fresh supplies of everything from missiles to mortars to armored vehicles. Almost everything is now being delivered to us," said the rebel source.

Turkish army vehicles were offloading the munitions and equipment onto Syrian rebel armored vehicles and trucks, said the rebel, who was present during a handover of weapons. New supplies of ground-to-ground missiles with a range of 20 kilometers (12 miles) had been provided to bolster the response to the Russian-backed attack, two rebel commanders said.

Facing one of the biggest defeats of the five-year-long war, rebels have been complaining that foreign states such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey have let them down by not providing them with more powerful weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles. The rebels and the Turkish government accuse the Kurdish militias of a campaign of ethnic cleansing of Arab-inhabited villages in a bid to carve a fiefdom in Syria's north.

The YPG has exploited the Russian-backed offensive, seizing ground from other opposition groups. After taking a string of towns, in what the rebels say is an advance coordinated with Russia, the YPG is now seeking to take Marea, the last town before Azaz.

http://www.todayszaman.com/diplomacy_syrian-rebels-say-reinforcements-get-free-p...

Preparing for Nuclear War Part 2 of 2 Piero San Giorgio

Surprised you haven't found a way to blame the Jews

Syrian Christian girls defend their town from Western backed moderate beheaders

Fri Feb 26, 2016

US President Barack Obama has once again renewed his call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, saying there is no alternative to his removal.

He also called on Russia and the Syrian government to honor a negotiated ceasefire in the war-torn country, warning Moscow and Damascus that the "world will be watching."

Obama made the remarks after holding a rare meeting with his national security team at the State Department on Thursday, a day before the cessation of hostilities was due to come into force.The ceasefire for Syria is set to take effect at midnight Friday local time.

He was flanked by Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and other top advisers, who updated him on the years-old Syrian crisis.

Obama said militants in Syria will never stop fighting until Assad is ousted from power.

"It's the only way to end the civil war and unite the Syrian people against terrorists," he claimed.

The cessation of hostilities was announced earlier this week after negotiations between Russia and the US, both of which have been engaged in airstrikes in the Arab country.

Obama said Assad should step down if a lasting peace is to be found in Syria.

"This is going to be a test of whether the parties are truly committed to negotiations," he said.

"It's clear that after years of his barbaric war against his own people -- including torture, and barrel bombs, and sieges, and starvation -- many Syrians will never stop fighting until Assad is out of power. There's no alternative to a managed transition away from Assad," he argued.

Obama said "the coming days will be critical" in finding whether there is a way to end the five-year-long deadly conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and displaced millions more.

“None of us are under any illusions,” Obama said. “We’re all aware of the many potential pitfalls, and there are plenty of reasons for skepticism.”

"But history would judge us harshly if we did not do our part in at least trying to end this terrible conflict with diplomacy,” he added.

In an interview with Press TV on Thursday, American political analyst Daniel Patrick Welch said regime change has always remained America’s only objective in Syria.

Welch said Washington has never had such a thing as Plan B and the alternatives they are speaking of now have always been the primary objectives they have been following in Syria.

“This idea of Plan B is kind of a scam; it has always been Plan A to topple the legitimate government and replace it with something weaker and something more compliant be it a failed state, a puppet regime or this division into sectarian mini states, instead of the legitimate elected government,” he explained.

US Secretary of State John Kerry had warned that if the Syrian ceasefire deal that the US and Russia agreed to on Monday falters, Washington will resort to its Plan B options.

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/02/25/452358/Kerry-Syria-US-Assad-Welch