A few days after Russian president Vladimir Putin’s phone call to his Syrian counterpart Bashar al Assad, a high-level Russian delegation headed by Minister of Defence Sergei Shoygu arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus and held a long meeting with president Assad. The meeting was attended by senior defense and security officials including the Syrian Minister of Defense Maj. General Ali Abdullah Ayyoub and National Security Chief General Ali Mamlouk. What is behind those two bilateral developments and what were the main topics discussed at the Damascus meeting?

Shoygu Went to Damascus ‘on President Putin’s Instructions’

The linkage between Putin’s phone call to Assad and the quickly-arranged visit by Shoygu is strong and clear, and the Russian minister is reported to have flown to Damascus “on President Putin’s instructions” and was delivering a “message from Putin to Assad”, similar to previous visits he had made to Syria such as the last one in March, 2019. But this time around, much has changed in terms of geopolitical as well as the military situation on the ground before the current truce agreement was reached between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Putin last month in Moscow.

The Truth Lies Between the Headlines and the Reality on the Ground

While the headline for the telephone conversation held between presidents Putin and Assad on March 20 was that this was a call by the Russian leader to congratulate his Syrian counterpart on the occasion of the Muslim holiday of Israa (Ascension) and Mi’raj (Descension) — a holy Muslim event — the two leaders are believed to have discussed military and humanitarian aspects of the situation in Idlib in some detail, including implementation methods and challenges to the Moscow deal between Erdogan and Putin. In particular they were interested in jump-starting the stalled Constitutional Committee as well as Russian assistance to Syria against the coronavirus pandemic.

A giant Russian vessel carrying some 200 ambulance vehicles and essential medical aid was seen two days ago crossing the Bosphorus Strait heading for the Syrian port of Tartous. Russia signed a long-term lease agreement with Syria regarding the strategic port of Tartous and pledged a $500 million investment plan there. Russia already maintains a naval base in Tartous, and the 49-year lease agreement that was signed in April, 2019, was later ratified by Syria’s parliament and endorsed afterwards by Assad.

At the top of the agenda discussed by the visiting Russian delegation in Damascus with the Syrian President Monday, was the issue of implementing Russian-Turkish agreements regarding the so-called “de-escalation zone” in Idlib, and arrangements for the reopening of the strategic M4 highway between Aleppo and the Mediterranean city of Latakia. The route crosses several towns and villages still controlled by pro-Turkish rebel forces, and its reopening plan is categorically rejected by the more radical Nusra terror group and other extremist militias who have dug trenches across the highway in certain areas to render it unusable for traffic, and threatened to attack any force that tries to implement the M4 plan.

Covid-19: An Added Challenge but Also a Battle-Stopper

The Russian delegation is also believed to have discussed bilateral military cooperation between Moscow and Damascus, as well as Russian relief supplies for what the Defense Ministry in order to counteract what it referred to as the “Syrian people suffering from Western sanctions.” Shoygu’s visit took place only one day after Damascus reported the first case of Covid-19 in Syria; now the official figure of confirmed cases is 5. All cases have come from abroad. A partial curfew has been imposed between 6 pm and 6 am, among other lockdown measures taken by the Syrian government to fend off against the pandemic that has rocked the world over the past couple of months, with catastrophic human and economic impact.

The new Covid-19 threat is reported to have triggered discussions among Russia observers regarding the types of challenges an extended outbreak might create. Mention was also made pertaining to the possibility of such a development impacting the geography of deployments and freedom of movement of the Russian military as well as protocols of contact between Russian servicemen and their Syrian, Turkish and Iranian peers. Discussions also centered on the dynamics and humanitarian challenges in Idlib in light of the pandemic. Some observers predicted that Turkey will even shut down its border to refugees for fear of further spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, and do so without Western criticism, since many nations have done exactly that in order to protect their own populations.

The “war” against the coronavirus pandemic has sarcastically stopped, at least tentatively, many wars in its path, such as Yemen, Libya and Syria. Russian Defense Ministry officials have reiterated that “in Tartous and other places that have a presence of Russian troops, all the necessary precautions are being taken regarding Covid-19 threat. No potentially contaminated serviceman will be allowed back into Russia.” Shoygu, meanwhile, mentioned Moscow’s willingness to provide assistance to jump-start Syria’s economic recovery “with the help of Russian specialists.”

Given the fact that Putin has invested a great deal in the ongoing truce in Idlib — despite Erdogan’s recurrent failure to disarm or control some radical and terrorist groups there as terrorists destroyed two Turkish armoured vehicles in Idlib earlier this week — recent top-level Russian-Syrian collaboration and the ensuing high-rank visit to Damascus appears to have been designed to provide reciprocal assurances to all involved on the Syrian theater.

No party is expected— or even allowed — to torpedo the current Idlib deal, and every side should pull their own weight to make the ceasefire stand firm, in anticipation of what many observers believe is an imminent and big next move. All indications point to the focus being first towards Idlib and areas east of the Euphrates next.

L'articolo What’s Behind Putin’s Call to Assad proviene da InsideOver.

Amid years of chaos, destruction and a bloody civil war in Syria, emerged a group of rescue and search workers known as the White Helmets. Founded in late 2012 early 2013, the White Helmets describe themselves as “former tailors, bakers, teachers, painters” and other blue-collar workers and ordinary Syrian men and women who had come together to form the “Syria Civil Defence” also known as (aka) the “White Helmets.”

That despite the presence and operations (since the 1950’s) of the government civil defence organisation (Syria Civil Defence) operating across the country. With its nearly “3,000 members,” the White Helmets operate only in “rebel-held” areas across Syria to rescue civilians trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Despite claiming to be “a non-partisan organisation” the White Helmets was established by former British army officer James Le Mesurier – a veteran of “NATO interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo” – and trained by the “Turkish AKUT Search and Rescue Association.”

The group also “receives millions of dollars in financial support and funding (through Mayday Rescue and Chemonics) from the governments of the UK, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Canada, New Zealand and the USA”. Funding it says “goes towards the training, equipment and support needed to achieve their mission.”

Publicly acknowledged, the US State Department has given the White Helmets via Chemonics – “a for-profit contractor based in Washington DC” – “$23 million from 2013 to March 2016.” The British government also supplied “£38.4 million” in aid to the White Helmets as of March 2018.

In April 2018, Donald Trump‘s administration “suspended the funding to the White Helmets.” However, in June 2018 Trump’s administration “reversed its decision to suspend funding for the White Helmets and released about $6.6 million in aid to the group.” A “move” that has been “strongly condemned by the Syrian government” calling on the US to halt its financing and support for terrorism.

Humanitarian NGO in disguise

Despite claiming to be neutral and objective in carrying out its operations and “saving people on all sides of the conflict”, the White Helmets have been accused of being affiliated and embedded with “hard-line extremists and sectarian armed groups in occupying Syria” serving as the logistical and propaganda arm of  (Syria’s Al Qaeda branch) and other extremist groups such as “Nour Al Din Zinki, Jaish Al Islam and ISIS”, and operating exclusively in “rebel-held” areas across Syria.

Fuelled by reports that the White Helmets are “paid mercenaries” affiliated with terrorist groups such as Al Nusra Front aka Jabhat Fateh Al Sham have led critics to question their “role and operations” in carrying out and “facilitating executions of civilians and military personnel”, “celebrating alongside terrorists over dead bodies”, “covering up opposition war crimes”, enabling “border organ trafficking operations and child abduction”, posing as fighters with artillery,”faking chemical attacks“, waving Al Qaeda and ISIS flags, “faking rescue operations, using crisis actors”, staging bodies, fabricating evidence and “using children – both dead and alive – as props for producing pro-intervention propaganda.”

The Syrian and Russian governments have accused the White Helmets of being trained agents linked to “Al Qaeda terrorists and Islamist insurgents” lobbying foreign military intervention aimed at “toppling the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.”

Chemical attack

The founding of the White Helmets coincides with the West losing military front regarding the push for regime change and foreign military intervention in Syria. Moreover, the group’s founding took place just after the Syrian government had raised initial concerns about a “terrorist chemical weapon attack in Khan Al Asal against the Syrian Army.”

Since then, the White Helmets have been “advocating further US intervention in the form of a No-Fly Zone (NFZ) in Syria (as the preamble to regime change) claiming to possess first-hand knowledge of chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government, acting as both witnesses and responders to events that were later proven to be staged work of armed opposition groups.”

Footage of “alleged chemical attacks” documented by the White Helmets were used by the “United Nations (UN), International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission and Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)” to issue reports holding the Syrian and Russian regimes responsible for the chemical weapons attack. An accusation strongly refuted by Damascus and Moscow describing it “illogical and deliberately staged by militants.”

Precisely, the White Helmets’ “chemical attacks videos” were timed to promote calls by western governments for direct military intervention in Syria.

On April 7, 2017, the White Helmets “staged a false flag chemical attack” on Khan Sheikhoun “which prompted a US missile attack on the Sharyat Air Base in Syria.” In April 2018, “another fake nerve agent attack in Douma” – later revealed as “a hoax by the OPCW” – , nonetheless “resulted in over one hundred missile strikes by the USA, UK and France against Syria.”

Both Damascus and Moscow have repeatedly accused the White Helmets of “staging and fabricating chemical weapons attacks” to frame the Syrian government and justify a pretext for Western air strikes against Syria.”

Evacuation and resettlement

In June 2018, a large-scale operation was carried out by Syrian government forces to “regain control of strategic territory” – once-held by rebel forces – in “southwestern Syria bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.” Backed by a Russian-brokered peace deal, rebel forces agreed to surrender and withdraw from Deraa and Quneitra provinces in Southern Syria.

As government forces advanced and took control of vast swathes of territory in the south west of the country, hundreds of White Helmets members and their families have fled near the Israeli border with the Golan Heights.

According to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) “400 Syrians affiliated with the White Helmets and their families were evacuated from Quneitra through Israel to Jordan,” following a request by the US, the UK, Canada and its European allies.

“The evacuees were transferred, through the Golan Heights, to Jordan, from where they are to be resettled as refugees in the UK, Canada and Germany.”

A statement by Russia’s Permanent Mission to the European Union (EU) said that the evacuation operation of White Helmets’ members from Syria “proves that their Western sponsors were eager to prevent possible disclosure and exposure of the notorious provocative activities and crimes committed by the White Helmets.”

L'articolo Who Really Are the Syrian White Helmets? proviene da InsideOver.