person:al-nusra

  • Syria war: Jihadist takeover in rebel-held Idlib sparks alarm - BBC News
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47252257

    In a dramatic takeover last month, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) swept through towns and villages in Idlib province, as well as adjoining parts of Aleppo and Hama.

    The group - which was known as al-Nusra Front before it broke off formal ties with #al-Qaeda three years ago - expelled some rebel factions and forced others to surrender and recognise a “civil administration” it backs.

    With almost 20,000 fighters in its ranks, HTS wants to impose strict Islamic rule in areas it controls. Civilians say the group’s practices are similar to those of IS.

    #Syrie

  • U.N. fears chemical weapons in Syria battle with ’10,000 terrorists’ | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-un/u-n-fears-chemical-weapons-in-syria-battle-with-10000-terrorists-idUSKCN1LF

    U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said there was a high concentration of foreign fighters in #Idlib, including an estimated 10,000 fighters designated by the U.N. as terrorists, who he said belonged to the #al-Nusra Front and #al_Qaeda.

    [...]

    “We all are aware that both the government and al-Nusra have the capability to produce weaponized chlorine.”

    Via “angry Arab”

    #Syrie

  • Debate: Syria, Ghouta, and the Left
    http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21337

    Yasser Munif répond à côté,

    AARON MATÉ: Yasser, let me put to you a clip from Joe Biden that I think that captures what I find puzzling about the Syrian war, which is what the Syrian government was supposed to do in response to the role that outside players that are trying to overthrow it have played. I mean, no one can justify cracking down on peaceful protesters, but what happens when it becomes a proxy war. On this front, I want to play what Joe Biden said in 2014 about what the US allies in the Gulf did in Syria.

    JOE BIDEN: Our biggest problem is our allies. Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks were great friends and I have a great relationship with Erdoğan, which I just spent a lot of time with. The Saudis, the Emirates, etc. What were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad, except that the people who were being supplied were Al-Nusra and Al-Qaeda, and the extremist elements of jihadists coming from other parts of the world.

    AARON MATÉ: That’s Joe Biden speaking in 2014, so yeah. What about that? Does the Syrian government have the right to fight those forces, especially the jihadist forces, who are not just a threat to the Syrian government, but also especially to minorities like Christians and Jews and Shiites inside Syria?

    YASSER MUNIF: I mean, the Syrian conflict is very complex and I think one of the dangers of the narrative described by Rania and others is this very reductive kind of...kind of binary, where there is only the west and Europe and the intervention on the one hand, and then the Syrian regime. When in fact, it’s a very complex conflict. And I think the most important element is the Syrian Revolution, the grassroots movement, the popular revolt against the Syrian regime that a part of what happened in 2011 that is an aspiration for democracy and freedom and dignity.

    Debate: Syria, Ghouta, and the Left (2/2)
    http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21336

  • Help comes with dangerous strings for Syrian Druze town
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/syria-druze-golan-heights-regime-opposition-israel.html

    Hadar, a Druze town with a population of 10,000, according to local officials, has a unique story. Nestled on the Syrian face of Jabal al-Sheikh, Hadar directly faces the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where the Shouting Valley separates it by just a few hundred meters from the Israeli-occupied Druze town of Majdal Shams. A few hundred meters up Jabal al-Sheikh, perched on its peak, sits one of Israel’s largest military intelligence stations. It carefully monitors all activity in the Golan on one side and in Lebanon’s Shebaa and beyond on the other.

    Hadar’s other neighbors are armed groups belonging to both the Jordanian-backed Southern Front and the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, now also known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. Between them, they control the villages and the remaining mountaintops overlooking Hadar.

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/syria-druze-golan-heights-regime-opposition-israel.html#ixzz4fL8n6v1b

  • Un long et très intéressant article sur le blog de Joshua Landis pour démonter la thèse «Assad a fabriqué ISIS»: Is Assad the Author of ISIS? Did Iran Blow Up Assef Shawkat? And Other Tall Tales
    http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/assad-author-isis-iran-blow-assef-sawkat-tall-tales-ehsani2

    As the events in Daraa unfolded, the President invited key figures from the town to see what can be done to calm the demonstrations. One such figure was cleric Sayasneh. One of the consistent demands of such meetings was the release of prisoners. It was no different when Douma joined the uprising. Foreign Embassies were also pushing the Syrian State to release what it called political prisoners. People like Zahran Alloush were sentenced to seven years in prison when he was arrested with a group of 40 people on the charge of promoting Wahhabi ideology and gun possession. They had not killed anyone or even fired a shot. Yet, they were sent to prisons like Sednaya and kept there beyond the end of their sentence on the whim of one of the security agencies. It was in this context when the residents of Douma demanded the release of prisoners from their districts. The Syrian leadership was under intense pressure to calm the crisis. The people of Douma promised to do their job at calming their own streets if some of those prisoners were released. Zahran and many others like him were released under this rationale. This is not too dissimilar to the way the American prisons in Iraq worked. Zarqawi, Baghdadi and Golani were all released from those prisons either when their terms ended or when the local populations demanded their release. Just like in Syrian prisons, the prisoners in American jails were also indoctrinated with jihadist ideology. Syria erred by releasing Alloush and Abboud who would go on to form Jeish al Islam and Ahrar just like the U.S. erred when it released Baghdadi who would go on to form ISIS.

    • Angry Arab revient lui aussi sur cette théorie, mais en réponse à un billet de Qifa Nabki : Elias Muhanna ("Qifanabki") on ISIS and the Syrian regime
      http://angryarab.blogspot.fr/2016/12/elias-muhanna-qifanabki-on-isis-and.html

      So Elias commented on the lousy (really trashy, journalistically speaking) series about ISIS and the Syrian regime in Daily Beast.
      https://qifanabki.com/2016/12/07/assad-and-isis
      This is not about politics but about methodology, journalistic standards and about the dominant political paradigm about Syria and beyond. Basically, in this piece, Eias reveals himself as fully March 14, while he used to be more careful in his analysis before. This piece reads like the talking points of March 14 really. But away from generalizations let us talk specifics (my responses to his words are in red):

      1) His opening sentence set the stage: "Gutman’s articles have been championed by opposition supporters and critiqued by regime loyalists." So here he tells readers that anyone who is critical of the piece is a regime supporters. Look at this demagogic method. So end of story. Let us go home. If you dare disagree with the non-expert Gutman (who research basically constituted spending long hours in cafes in Istanbul). There is really no need to continue when he says that, but I will continue.

      2) He then informs the readers this: "The most astute observers of the conflict have long recognized the alignment of certain interests between the regime and the most radical elements in the Islamist opposition." Here, you are to believe that if you are astute you have to agree with the premise of Gutman and Western media and government, otherwise you are not astute. No evidence is necessary.

      3) Look at this line (and notice that Elias, like all other cheerleaders of the armed Jihadi groups in Syria) still insist that there was this really secular/feminist/democratic spectrum of secular armed groups, and then the regime came and produced those Islamists and then, voila, the secular armed groups suddenly disappeared in order for Bashshar to claim that his enemies are not the real Voltaire Battalions but the various Islamist Jihadi battalions: "The rise of ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra has been disastrous for the secular political opposition".

      4) Elias then proceeds to yet again complains that the fact that Gutman piece is short on data and research (unless sitting in cafes in Istanbul counts as solid research) is bad not from a journalistic standpoint but because it helps the opponents of his beloved Syrian rebels (former Voltaire battalions who were transformed by trickery by the regime to Jihadi battalions): "That’s unfortunate, because they have given regime apologists more ammunition for the claim that the Syrian uprising is nothing but a foreign conspiracy fueled by fake news and Gulf-funded think tanks." But I am not sure what he means by the side reference to Gulf-funded think tanks? Does he mean that those are valuable academic assets who should not be criticized or does he mean that their punditry should be respected and not maligned and ridiculed. Not sure here but he seems defensive about them.

      5) Here he produces his theory (same as Gutman theory and same as the various theories about the Jihadi rebels from DAY ONE): "When the Assad regime released many of its Islamist prisoners from Sednaya Prison in 2011 — including individuals like Zahran Alloush, Yahia al-Hamawi, Hassan Abboud, and others who would go on to positions of leadership in Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam, and ISIS — it did so in full knowledge that the Islamists spelled trouble for the nascent uprising." So the evidence marshaled by Elias is that since the regime released them from jail, it means it controls them and even controls them when they bomb the regime sites and when they kill regime supporters, etc. But here is what curious: if this is the evidence in itself, how come Elias never wrote that US is responsible for the Jihadi in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan as the US release scores of Jihadi fighters INCLUDING BAGHDADI HIMSELF? And does this argument not apply to Jordan, Saudi, Pakistani, Afghani, and Moroccan regime? The Jordanian regime is most culpable among them all as it started to manipulate Jihadis long before any of those regimes. So if the evidence is the release from jail, then it can’t be true in the case of Syrian regime and not true in the case of all those other regimes including the US government and its occupation authorities in the region.

      6) Then Elias produces another conspiracy theory more fascinating than the first one: "The intelligence services guessed correctly that the peaceful secular demonstrations would be overrun by violent former inmates". Here, what does overrun mean? I mean, if the rebels were mostly secular, why would the release of Jihadi “overrun” them? What would that happen if the majority are active in the Voltaire Battalions? Why did not the more popular (according to Elias and all other mainstream journalists) secular forces overrun the others?

      7) Then Elias proceeds to make a Lebanon analogy: "That group was widely seen as a tool of Syrian intelligence". Widely seen? It was only “widely seen” by the Hariri family and the rest of the Saudi-run March 14 Movement. There was never any evidence presented about that. The only evidence is that its leader once spent time in Syrian regime jail, just as Baghdadi once spent time in US military jails in Iraq. And many of those Jihadi groups are openly and blatantly opposed to the Syrian regime on sectarian grounds and in fact the regime fought against them in Lebanon during the Syrian political domination of Lebanon. But it gets worse:

      8) Elias then says: "Longtime Syria-watchers will recall that Hizbullah was adamantly opposed to the Lebanese Army’s assault on the camp". I consider myself “a long time Syria-watcher” — and an occasional bird-watcher — and I dont recall that. This is absolutely and totally untrue, and even Elias friends in March 14 would not mischaracterize the stance of Hizbullah as such. Hizbullah was NOT opposed to the assault on the camp: Nasrallah specifically said that entry into the camp “is the red line”. He meant that the civilian population of the camp should be spared and that the assault on Fath Al-Islam should have sparred the lives of civilians But unfortunatley, once the Lebanese Amy began the assault on the camp, Hizbullah never complained AS IT SHOULD HAVE. More than 45 Palestinian civilians were massacred by the Lebanese Army assault. I was and still am of the position that the Lebanese Army should not have assaulted the camp (I call on Elias to visit what is left of the camp to see for himself) in order to get rid of a small armed gang, especially that negotiations were going on. In fact, the lousy Syrian regime Army supported and helped and the lousy Lebanese regime Army in the assault of the camp. And unfortunately Hizbullhah provided intelligence and military support for the Army during the assault. So if my position against Army assault make me an accomplice with Fath Al-Islam, be my guest. But it was really incredible how Elias—desperate to find evidence of any kind—decided to distort the position of Hizbullah.

      9) Finally, Elias concludes with his last evidence, that the Syrian regime had “infiltrated” those groups: "given the regime’s successful infiltration of these groups". Wait. Infiltration of groups means control and creation of those groups? Do you remember after Sep. 11 when George Tenet testified before US Congress that CIA had infiltrated Al-Qa`idah? Syrian, Jordanian, Saudi, and other Arab and Western and Israeli intelligence services had all infiltrated those groups, but why do you go from here to decide that only the Syrian regime is guilty of infiltration? Are you that desperate to validate a lousy piece of journalism by Roy Gutman? Finally, here is what I find interesting: Gutman built up his case on coffee shop chatter by Syrians in Istanbul, but usually Westerners mock unsubstanitated conspiracy theories by Middle Easterners. Yet, only in the case of Syria are those conspiracy theories believed and peddled and only because they serve the propaganda interests of of Western governments.

      PS Do you notice that when people cite the lousy piece by Roy Gutman they always say: the award-winning Roy Gutman. I remember when people cited Judith Miller about WMDs of Iraq before 2003, they also always said: award-winning journalist, Judith Miller.

      PPS Elias Responds here.
      https://qifanabki.com/2016/12/07/assad-and-isis/comment-page-1/#comment-127286

    • Sinon, c’est la même #théorie_du_complot, explicitée cette fois par Michel Touma de l’Orient-Le Jour, reprise de manière extrêmement fainéante par Courrier international :
      http://www.courrierinternational.com/article/lettre-ouverte-du-liban-pourquoi-francois-fillon-tout-faux-su

      (alors qu’il y aurait beaucoup à dire sur le fait de baser une politique étrangère française sur la prétendue et forcément catastrophique « protection des Chrétiens d’Orient »)

  • This is why everything you’ve read about the wars in Syria and Iraq could be wrong - Patrick Cockburn
    http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-aleppo-iraq-mosul-isis-middle-east-conflict-assad-war-everythin

    The Iraqi army, backed by US-led airstrikes, is trying to capture east Mosul at the same time as the Syrian army and its Shia paramilitary allies are fighting their way into east Aleppo. An estimated 300 civilians have been killed in Aleppo by government artillery and bombing in the last fortnight, and in Mosul there are reportedly some 600 civilian dead over a month.

    Despite these similarities, the reporting by the international media of these two sieges is radically different.

    In Mosul, civilian loss of life is blamed on Isis, with its indiscriminate use of mortars and suicide bombers, while the Iraqi army and their air support are largely given a free pass. Isis is accused of preventing civilians from leaving the city so they can be used as human shields.

    Contrast this with Western media descriptions of the inhuman savagery of President Assad’s forces indiscriminately slaughtering civilians regardless of whether they stay or try to flee. The UN chief of humanitarian affairs, Stephen O’Brien, suggested this week that the rebels in east Aleppo were stopping civilians departing – but unlike Mosul, the issue gets little coverage.

    One factor making the sieges of east Aleppo and east Mosul so similar, and different, from past sieges in the Middle East, such as the Israeli siege of Beirut in 1982 or of Gaza in 2014, is that there are no independent foreign journalists present. They are not there for the very good reason that Isis imprisons and beheads foreigners while Jabhat al-Nusra, until recently the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, is only a shade less bloodthirsty and generally holds them for ransom. 

    These are the two groups that dominate the armed opposition in Syria as a whole. In Aleppo, though only about 20 per cent of the 10,000 fighters are Nusra, it is they – along with their allies in Ahrar al-Sham – who are leading the resistance.

    Unsurprisingly, foreign journalists covering developments in east Aleppo and rebel-held areas of Syria overwhelmingly do so from Lebanon or Turkey. A number of intrepid correspondents who tried to do eyewitness reporting from rebel-held areas swiftly found themselves tipped into the boots of cars or otherwise incarcerated.

    Experience shows that foreign reporters are quite right not to trust their lives even to the most moderate of the armed opposition inside Syria. But, strangely enough, the same media organisations continue to put their trust in the veracity of information coming out of areas under the control of these same potential kidnappers and hostage takers.

  • Syrians jailed for blocking ambulance carrying Al-Nusra terrorists to Israel
    https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrians-jailed-for-blocking-ambulance-carrying-al-nusra-terrorists-to-

    Two Syrians living in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights have been sentenced to prison by an Israeli military court for blocking an ambulance transporting Islamist fighters operating in Syria from being treated in Israel.

    Amal Abu Saleh was sentenced to seven years and eight months in jail with a $3,000 fine, whilst Bashira Mahmoud was sentenced to 22 months in prison and fined $1,000 dollars.

    #golan #palestine

  • Profiling Jabhat #al-Nusra

    Since mid-2014, the world’s attention has been transfixed on the aesthetically shocking actions of #ISIS and the threat it poses to regional and international security. However, it is arguably #Jabhat_al-Nusra in Syria—and perhaps the al-Qaida movement more broadly—that looks more likely to survive over the long term and to threaten local, regional and international security interests. Since its emergence in Syria in late 2011, Jabhat al-Nusra has transformed itself from an unpopular outsider accused of Islamic State in Iraq (ISI)-like brutality towards one of the most powerful armed actors in the Syrian crisis. Moreover, its break away from the ISI in April 2013 set it further down a path of deep integration into the broader Syrian armed opposition in its fight against Bashar Assad’s regime.


    https://www.brookings.edu/research/profiling-jabhat-al-nusra
    #EI #rapport #Etat_islamique #Syrie #Irak

    Le rapport est téléchargeable ici :
    https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/iwr_20160728_profiling_nusra.pdf

  • Kerry: Critics of Obama administration’s Syria policy ’completely screwed up’
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/07/kerry-critics-obama-syria-policy-erdogan-coup-army.html

    Laura Rozen reports, “The US proposal for deeper US-Russian coordination against Jabhat al-Nusra is controversial within the US administration, with some Pentagon, intelligence and State Department officials expressing doubt the Russians could be trusted to restrain the Syrian regime or not to use the intelligence to target US-backed rebels, given their track record of doing so in the past months.”

    In a joint press conference with Lavrov, Kerry described critics of his initiative as “completely screwed up.” He reminded the “dissent” crowd that Jabhat al-Nusra, just like the Islamic State (IS), is designated as a terrorist organization under numerous UN Security Council resolutions. He said that “Nusra is plotting against countries in the world” and that “what happened in Nice last night could just as well have come from Nusra.” Kerry refused to characterize Jabhat al-Nusra as “opposition” and expressed confidence in the “non-terrorist organization opposition, the legitimate opposition, the opposition we have supported.”

    Kerry noted that, in addition to the Syrian government, Jabhat al-Nusra and its allies have also violated the cessation of hostilities, as this column has reported — a fact often missing in press accounts. The secretary said opposition forces pairing up with Jabhat al-Nusra because of a shared commitment to fight President Bashar al-Assad’s forces “will not excuse it in our eyes. We saw what happened when people said the same thing about [IS] for a period of time — oh, don’t worry, they’re just a force against Assad, and down the road we can take them on. Well, they became more than just a force. And so I think that it is important for the United States, Russia, the entire coalition of ISSG [International Syria Support Group] to stand up against terrorism, and that is what we intend to continue to do.” Kerry made clear that the United States maintains that Syria can’t have peace while Assad is there,” and that Washington and Moscow disagree on this point.

  • A New Fight Over Syria War Strategy - Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com
    http://original.antiwar.com/porter/2016/07/08/new-fight-syria-war-strategy

    #Gareth_Porter

    The long internal political struggle within the Obama administration over policy toward Syria has intensified following a proposal by President Barack Obama to cooperate with Russia in an air campaign against Al Qaeda’s Syrian franchise.

    The proposal, in response to an overture from Russia in May, would coordinate airstrikes against al-Nusra Front – the most powerful force in the war against Bashar al-Assad’s regime – in return for Russian agreement to constrain the Syrian regime from bombing non-jihadist forces willing to comply with the ceasefire.

    If fully implemented, such a joint U.S.-Russian military campaign against Nusra could help hasten an end to the war by weakening the jihadist group cited by the Syrian regime as a major reason it has refused to make sufficient political concessions. In theory, such cooperation could strengthen both the regime and the so-called “moderate” rebels at the expense of the jihadists.

    But Obama’s proposal is under attack by powerful elements of the national security bureaucracy. Even though the opponents have been unable to stop the proposal, they continue to press their case and it is not clear how committed the proponents are in pressuring their Syrian clients to comply with an agreement.

    Last week, opponents of the proposal within the Obama administration leaked its existence to Washington Post columnist Josh #Rogin, whose sympathies clearly lie with the U.S. advocates of direct US war against the Assad regime.

    Rogin’s story confirms that one major source of opposition to the proposal is Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and his staff. The article suggests, moreover, that the Pentagon opposition has less to do with Syria than with the Pentagon’s interest in preventing any softening of the new U.S.-Russia Cold War.

    #Syrie #OTAN #Russie #Etats-Unis

  • Victoire électorale d’Ashraf Rifi à Tripoli (Liban). Les éléments de langage sont déjà en place depuis un moment : « grassroot », « fils d’un meunier », « issu d’un quartier populaire »… et pour Gulfnews, il serait carrément : « le nouveau leader des sunnites au Liban » :

    The hugely popular Rifi has unquestionably emerged as the new leader of Sunnis in Lebanon.

    Les milices ? Les investissements immobiliers sur le littoral ? Les enjeux saoudiens dans le Nord du Liban ? Meeeehh…

  • Sunday, May 29, 2016
    ISIS and Israel
    http://angryarab.blogspot.fr/2016/05/isis-and-israel.html

    There is a strange relationship between Israel and a small sect of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) based next to the Golan Heights. The very presence of a group like ISIS so close to Israel poses many questions. Firstly why has ISIS not attacked Israel – a country they have sworn to destroy – from said base? Similarly why has the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) not attacked this small and weak group of extremists on their border? The answers to such questions show the truth behind the rhetoric all actors use in this conflict...Israel is focused not on ISIS and Sunni groups, but on the Shia groups in Syria. Israel’s airstrikes have hit Assad’s Shia-backed regime and Hezbollah, not ISIS or al-Nusra. Correspondence between the then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and political advisor Jacob Sullivan about Israel’s aims in the region tried to rationalise why Israel ignores ISIS." (thanks Helena)
    Posted by As’ad AbuKhalil at 2:22 PM

    Correspondence : http://graphics.wsj.com/hillary-clinton-email-documents/pdfs/C05791550.pdf

  • Ca va pas fort pour les rebelles de la poche d’Azaz qui après avoir pris du territoire à Da’ich risquent de voir leur microterritoire coupé en 2 par les offensives de Da’ich et perdre la ville de Mare. Reste que la ligne de front ne cesse de bouger dans cette zone et donc que rien n’y est fait :


    (carte de @miladvisor)

    Cela dans les contexte où on évoque la création d’une armée « Armée du Nord » (Jaych al-Chamal) sous le patronage turco-américain qui aurait pour but d’empêcher les Kurdes de faire la jonction Kobané-Afrin en prenant du territoire à Da’ich au Nord à partir de la poche d’Azaz, et également de combattre al-Nousra dans la province d’Idlib afin d’aider la rébellion à se distancier du groupe selon les souhaits des Russes - et, semble-t-il, des Américains (mais soyons prudents...) :
    http://www.thearabweekly.com/?id=5153

    The plan was reportedly formu­lated at a meeting May 9th in Turkey and included intelligence officials from the United States, Turkey, Sau­di Arabia and Qatar, in addition to leaders of the rebel groups. Turkish officials bluntly told the insurgents that if they refused to join the pro­posed alliance they would be brand­ed as terrorists.
    The Americans are to provide the new force with advanced weaponry. Saudi Arabia and Qatar would cover financial costs. Military operations could start within two weeks. Air cover would be provided by the coa­lition countries while Turkey would offer artillery support from across the border.
    According to a field commander with al-Zenki, the plan involves three phases, starting with the an­nouncement of the creation of Jaish al-Shamal. The second step includes moving the groups’ fighters and their weapons via Turkish territo­ries to northern Aleppo. The third phase is the fight itself.
    He noted that opposition groups had begun on May 13th mov­ing fighters and heavy weaponry through Bab al-Hawa, a border crossing between Syria and Turkey.
    Al-Zenki group is to lead the bat­tle, which is meant to fight ISIS, evict al-Nusra Front from Idlib, lib­erate the town of Al Raii, capture the area to the east of city of Azaz and then the city of Mare’.
    The plan was confirmed by US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who declared at a May 13th news conference in Washington that the United States and Turkey share the objective of clearing the area from ISIS.
    However, the fact that the plan does not refer to fighting troops loy­al to Assad has aroused suspicions among rebel groups of the existence of a prior agreement between the United States and Russia on the for­mation of the new alliance.
    “We fear that the US conditions limit the mission of this (new) army to fighting ISIS,” an al-Zenki com­mander said. “Is there a US-Russian understanding with the Syrian re­gime to avoid fighting between the Northern Army and the Syrian regu­lar army as well as the Kurdish fight­ers who are attempting to control the area?”
    It seems opposition groups have no alternative but to go along with the US plan of fighting ISIS out of fear that they will lose land to ad­vancing Assad troops, backed by Iranian and Hezbollah fighters un­der Russian air cover, and also their only supply route from Turkey, which threatened to consider them terrorists if they fail to comply.
    Nonetheless, the US-sponsored plan seems to serve the goals of Turkey, which according to high-ranking Syrian opposition sources, “is facing an embarrassing situa­tion” after the killing of more than 25 people and the injuring of dozens of others by ISIS bombardment from Syria on the Turkish town of Kilis.

    • Les choses bougent vite sur ce front...
      Da’ich vient de prendre la route Azaz-Marea. La poche d’Azaz est coupée en deux et Marea complètement isolée :


      http://www.lorientlejour.com/article/988161/quelque-100000-syriens-pieges-par-lavancee-de-lei-vers-la-frontiere-t

      Les jihadistes ont coupé une route clé entre Azaz, une ville toute proche de la frontière turque, et Marea, à quelques km plus au sud-ouest, a indiqué depuis Azaz Maamoun Khatib, qui tient une agence de presse proche de l’opposition.

      « C’est un désastre », a-t-il affirmé à l’AFP, précisant que quelque 15.000 personnes étaient maintenant assiégées à Marea.

      Cette avancée de l’EI menace des dizaines de milliers de personnes déplacées par les combats et vivant des camps informels dans le secteur d’Azaz alors que la frontière avec la Turquie est fermée depuis plusieurs mois.

      « Nous sommes terriblement inquiets pour environ 100.000 personnes piégées entre la frontière turque et les lignes de front », a indiqué Pablo Marco, responsable régional des opérations pour Médecins sans frontières (MSF).

      L’ONG affirme être en train d’évacuer les patients et le personnel d’un hôpital qu’elle soutient à Salama, une localité entre la frontière et Azaz.

      « Les gens n’ont nulle part pour fuir tandis que les combats se rapprochent », a alerté M. Marco.

  • Hezbolá captura a varios oficiales de EEUU y de Francia en Alepo - HispanTV, Nexo Latino
    http://hispantv.com/newsdetail/siria/256259/hezbola-captura-oficiales-eeuu-francia-alepo-frente-alnusra

    Selon un site proche du Hezb au sud du Liban, les Hezbollah fait prisonnier des membres des forces spéciales (ou juste des mercenaires) étasusniens et français à Alep. Il s’agirait d’une réponse aux morts iraniens de Khan Touma ou à la mort de Mustafa badreddine près de Damas.

    El Movimiento de Resistencia Islámica de El Líbano (Hezbolá) capturó a varios oficiales de EE.UU. y Francia que apoyaban a los grupos terroristas en la ciudad de Alepo, en el norte de Siria.

    «En una operación compleja y precisa, las fuerzas especiales de Hezbolá arrestaron a un cabecilla de la llamada oposición armada de Siria, junto a varios oficiales de la Inteligencia de EE.UU. y Francia en las proximidades de Alepo», ha informado este sábado Southlebanon, página Web cercana al movimiento libanés.

    Los militares detenidos, según indica la fuente, que cita fuentes de Hezbolá, han formado un centro de operaciones militares, desde donde dirigían los ataques de los grupos takfiríes como el Frente Al-Nusra, rama siria de Al-Qaeda, contra el Ejército sirio y sus aliados.

    #syrie #mercenaires

    • Fars News, particulièrement confus sur l’enchaînement des faits… (intégralité)

      Farsnews
      http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950301000881

      TEHRAN (FNA)- Hezbollah has captured two US and French spies in its operations in Aleppo, a prominent Lebanese media source revealed on Saturday, adding that Hezbollah military chief Mustafah Badreddin was killed in retaliation for the same event.
      “Hezbollah special forces took captive a senior field commander of the terrorists affiliated to Riyadh and two US and French intelligence officers working in the newly-founded joint operations room of Jeish al-Fatah in Aleppo in one of the regions controlled by al-Nusra Front in Aleppo,” Majeda al-Haj, a prominent Lebanese journalist, wrote on al-Sabat news website today.

      Al-Haj said that the joint operations room was set up so that the French, US and Saudi intelligence agents can directly command Jeish al-Fatah terrorist attacks in Aleppo and nearby regions.

      She said the US and Saudi spies later designed an assassination plot and killed Badreddin in retaliation for the capture of these officers.

      The development came after martyrdom of the Lebanese resistance movement’s senior military commander Mustafah Badreddin near Damascus military airport in a terrorist attack last week.

      After his death, a senior politician disclosed that the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement is planning to launch massive military operations against the Takfiri terrorists in Syria in retaliation for his martyrdom.

      “Unique military operations by Hezbollah against Syria’s Takfiri terrorists will be conducted very soon,” Wahib Wahibi told FNA on Tuesday.

      He reiterated that Hezbollah’s response to the Takfiri terrorists’ crimes will come within the framework of its counterterrorism operations.

  • Ça ne surprendra personne mais c’est toujours bon à documenter : selon l’OSDH un émir de Jabhat al-Nousra de la région d’Idlib, est mort de ses blessures suite à des combats contre les forces armées du régime alors qu’il était traité dans un hôpital ... en Turquie :
    http://www.syriahr.com/en/2016/05/18/46602

    An Amir in Jabhat Al-Nusra (al-Qaeda in Levant) of Jabal al-Zawiyah died affected by his injury which he got in previous clashes against the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them in the southern countryside of Aleppo, intersecting sources confirmed to SOHR that commander of Jabhat Al-Nusra died while he was being treated in a hospital inside the Turkish territory.

  • Le porte-parole de l’opération Inherent Resolve juge que les bombardements russes contre Alep ne compromettent pas (« it’s complicated ») l’accord de cessez-le-feu du fin février, arguant que c’est principalement (« primarily ») al-Nusra qui tient Alep, et que Nusra ne fait pas partie de l’accord… (Ça me semble suffisamment important pour que tu n’en entendes plus parler.)

    Defense Department says Nusra in Aleppo
    http://uk.businessinsider.com/defense-department-nusra-aleppo-putin-assad-2016-4

    US Army Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq, was asked whether Russian airstrikes on Aleppo, the current epicenter of the war, meant that Moscow was preparing to end the cessation of hostilities (CoH) agreement between government forces and the opposition signed on February 29.

    Warren responded that it was “complicated” because al-Nusra “holds Aleppo” and is not party to the agreement.

    Warren said of Russia:

    I’m not going to predict what their intentions are. What I do know is that we have seen, you know, regime forces with some Russian support as well begin to mass and concentrate combat power around Aleppo. ... That said, it’s primarily al-Nusra who holds Aleppo, and of course, al-Nusra is not part of the cessation of hostilities. So it’s complicated.

    • Le véritable titre de l’article illustre de manière caricaturale le côté débilitant de la doxa journalistique (et qui est notre ennemi principal) : The Defense Department made a big gaffe that helps Putin and Assad in Syria

    • D’autant que l’article ne cite ensuite que des sources de l’opposition et d’analystes qui ont affiché leur soutien à celle-ci, y compris aux groupes salafistes tels Ahrar ou Jaysh al-Islam...
      Et l’article n’évoque pas du tout deux questions qui viennent à l’esprit avec un tel titre :
      1° - Est-ce une gaffe parce que c’est faux, ou bien parce que c’est une vérité qu’il ne faut pas dire ? Mais peut-être que la narrative journalistique n’en est plus à ce genre de distinctions d’un autre temps...
      2° - Est-ce que par hasard cette « gaffe », qui justifie du bout des lèvres la (contre) offensive du régime et de ses alliés à Alep, n’est-elle pas finalement délibérée, et n’en serait donc pas une ?
      Question sur un éventuel accord tacite USA/Russie dont on essaie encore de deviner les contours, qui restent d’ailleurs peut-être encore flous, bien sûr pour les simples mortels comme nous, mais peut-être aussi pour les chancelleries russes et américaines elles-mêmes...

    • Sur la reconnaissance par des déclarations d’officiels américains de la présence d’al-Nousra dans la région d’Alep, Moon of Alabama vient d’en recenser quelques unes :
      U.S. Officials Confirm - Syrian Army Attack In Aleppo To Hit Al-Qaeda
      http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/04/us-officials-confirm-syrian-army-attack-in-aleppo-to-hit-al-qaeda-.ht
      Par exemple Kerry cité récemment par le New York Times :

      Russian Military Buildup Near Aleppo, Syria, Threatens Truce, Kerry Warns - NY Times April 23 2015
      http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/world/middleeast/russian-military-buildup-near-aleppo-threatens-truce-kerry-warns.html
      Mr. Kerry said that the Russians might be moving on Aleppo because members of the Al Nusra Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda, were mixed throughout parts of the region, and that they were terrorists not party to the cease-fire. At the same time, he said, the region is home to insurgent groups that oppose Mr. Assad and have agreed to the cease-fire.
      “That has proven harder to separate them than we thought,” Mr. Kerry said. “And there’s a Russian impatience and a regime impatience with the terrorists who are behaving like terrorists and laying siege to places on their side and killing people.”

      Conclusion de MoA :

      For the last several days the government held parts of Aleppo city and the 2,000,000 inhabitants and refugees there have been under constant bombardment with improvised gas-canister mortars and rockets from the al-Nusra side.
      Some heavy operations against the al-Qaeda held areas in Aleppo governate and Aleppo city are inevitable and now seem to be imminent. The statements the U.S. officials made above seem to justify such an operation.

  • On nous abreuve de jolies photos.

    SITE, le site de la très louche Rita Katz a reproduit cette photo présentée comme un « Wanted » émis par Da’ich contre le chef syrien d’al-Nousra, Abou Mohammed al-Joulani :


    La précédente photo qui a circulé de « lui », d’origine inconnue n’est pas incompatible avec celle-ci : https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/newsandpolitics/527415-meet-abu-mohamad-al-jawlani
    Le joli drapeau derrière lui est celui de l’Etat islamique en Iraq, devenu Daech puis EI. Histoire de rappeler avec qui certains groupes rebelles combattent...

    Une photo plus intéressante circule aussi en ce moment alors qu’une réunion où se trouvait le porte-parole d’al-Nousra, un certain Abou Firas al-Souri, historique d’al-Qaïda, vient d’être bombardée et que celui-ci vient d’y trouver la mort.
    Elle montre ce Abou Firas (à droite) en compagnie d’Abou Khaled al-Souri (à gauche), autre historique d’al-Qaïda, et d’Hassan Aboud (au centre) fondateur du groupe Ahrar al-Cham al-islamiya :
    https://counterjihadnews.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/abu-firas-al-suri-with-abu-khalid-and-hassan-abbou
    Aboud et Abou Khaled al-Souri ayant été tués vers la mi-2014, cette photo date d’avant.
    Mais plus intéressant, le bombardement aérien dans la région d’Idlib qui vient de tuer Abou Firas et d’autres membres d’al-Nousra n’a pour l’instant été revendiqué par personne et l’on se demande - que ce soit chez le SOHR pro-opposition où l’on subodore la Russie, ou chez les pro-régime d’al-Masdar où l’on déclare que l’on ne sait pas - qui des Russes ou des Américains en est à l’origine :
    https://www.yahoo.com/news/syrias-qaeda-spokesman-20-jihadists-dead-strikes-monitor-200452734.html

    The spokesman for Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, Al-Nusra Front, his son and 20 other jihadists were killed in air strikes in the northeast of the country, a monitor said.
    Abu Firas al-Suri was meeting with other leading Islamist fighters in a Nusra stronghold in Kafar Jales when the raids struck, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
    “Abu Firas al-Suri, his son and at least 20 jihadists of Al-Nusra and Jund al-Aqsa and jihadists from Uzbekistan were killed in strikes on positions in Idlib province,” its chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
    It was not immediately clear if the raids were carried out by Syrian regime warplanes or their Russian allies.
    Two other targets belonging to Al-Nusra and allied jihadist group Jund al-Aqsa in the north of Idlib province were also attacked, Abdel Rahman said, leaving many seriously wounded.
    Syrian Suri, real name Radwan Nammous, fought against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan where he met Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his mentor Abdullah Azzam before returning to Syria in 2011, according to supporters on Twitter.

  • Lire absolument: Saudi Arabia Gazes at Lebanon with Vengeance
    http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/24102/saudi-arabia-gazes-at-lebanon-with-vengeance

    On 21 June 2015, angry families in Lebanon took to the streets protesting the brutal treatment of Islamist prisoners at Roumia prison. A leaked video showed one security officer flogging a naked, handcuffed, bearded man with a water hose while shouting profanities: “Do you want houriat? It’s your mother who will be the hourieh.” The featured torturers turned out to be members of the Information Security Branch, which is under the direct command of Minister of Interior and Future Party leader Nouhad al-Mashnuq. Protesters in Tripoli, Beirut, and Iqlim al-Kharrub (in Mount Lebanon) chanted slogans and insults against Hariri, al-Mashnuq, and Minister of Justice Ashraf Rifi, calling them “secular infidels that do not represent ahal al-Sunna.”

    In the face of this public resentment, some Future Party MPs in the north (MPs Khalid al-Daher and Mouin Mer’abi) distanced themselves from their party for fear of losing their local constituency, while others blamed the whole thing on Hizballah. Rifi, with his trademark impulsive miscalculations, blamed Hizballah for leaking the video showing humiliation and torture of Lebanese Islamist prisoners (mostly from Tripoli and other parts of the north). But in his attempt to direct Sunni anger against the Shi‘a, Rifi’s sectarian politics backfired. Angry protesters turned apoplectic because of their perception that Rifi assumed that they were too stupid to discern his tactics, and instead some protesters went on television, shouting, “We want to thank Hizballah for exposing the truth about the torture our sons are subjected to in Roumia.” Hizballah denied leaking the video; moreover, the IP address of the original YouTube account where the video was first published turned out to be that of the media office of Ashraf Rifi. Hizballah’s advantage lies in the fact that Saudi Arabia’s proxies in Lebanon are currently caught up in a maelstrom of confusion and a lack of public credibility.

    Internally, in light of an ongoing and self-inflicted trash crisis, both March 8 and March 14 politicians continue to de-escalate their political rhetoric. However, Saudi Arabia’s insistence on a confrontation with Hizballah means that it is only a matter of time until the Saudis withdraw their losing card, Sa‘ad Hariri, and deploy another Trojan horse to create the sort of chaos the kingdom seeks. This means other Sunni figures will be given a leading role and Hariri will be out of the Lebanese arena–again. Saudi Arabia’s possible nominees for unconventional roles could include Jabhat al-Nusra or/and IS, alongside thuggish Sunni figures who have splintered from Future and set up their own shop as warlords for hire. This includes those who perpetuated a six-year war between the poorest communities in Tripoli.

  • Quelques réactions à l’article de Goldberg #Obama_doctrine qui a été perçu par certains comme l’expression publique de la doctrine stratégique d’Obama pour les quelques mois restant de la fin de son mandat :
    http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obama-doctrine/471525

    A noter, par exemple un article de Patrick Cockburn dans The Independent titré « Comment Barack Obama a tourné le dos à l’Arabie saoudite et à ses alliés sunnites » manifestement content du tournant que cela semble annoncer dans la politique étrangère américaine :
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/barack-obama-saudi-arabia-us-foreign-policy-syria-jihadism-isis-a6927

    Commentators have missed the significance of President Barack Obama’s acerbic criticism of Saudi Arabia and Sunni states long allied to the US for fomenting sectarian hatred and seeking to lure the US into fighting regional wars on their behalf. In a series of lengthy interviews with Jeffrey Goldberg published in The Atlantic magazine, Mr Obama explains why it is not in the US’s interests to continue the tradition of the US foreign policy establishment, whose views he privately disdains, by giving automatic support to the Saudis and their allies.

    Et la conclusion :

    It will become clearer after November’s presidential election how far Obama’s realistic take on Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and other US allies and his scepticism about the US foreign policy establishment will be shared by the new administration. The omens are not very good since Hillary Clinton supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003, intervention in Libya in 2011 and bombing Syria in 2013. If she wins the White House, then the Saudis and the US foreign policy establishment will breathe more easily.

    Et puis une réaction pour le moins agacée, celle du prince Turki bin Faysal, en personne, ancien chef des services de renseignement saoudiens et ex-ambassadeur de l’A.S. aux USA qui proteste de sa fidélité comme allié des USA et de la lutte implacable des saoudiens contre le terrorisme et tout ça et tout ça puisqu’il a armé les « combattants de la liberté » qui luttent contre Da’ich :
    http://www.arabnews.com/news/894826

    No, Mr. Obama. We are not “free riders.” We shared with you our intelligence that prevented deadly terrorist attacks on America.
    We initiated the meetings that led to the coalition that is fighting Fahish (ISIL), and we train and fund the Syrian freedom fighters, who fight the biggest terrorist, Bashar Assad and the other terrorists, Al-Nusrah and Fahish (ISIL). We offered boots on the ground to make that coalition more effective in eliminating the terrorists.
    We initiated the support — military, political and humanitarian — that is helping the Yemeni people reclaim their country from the murderous militia, the Houthis, who, with the support of the Iranian leadership, tried to occupy Yemen; without calling for American forces. We established a coalition of more than thirty Muslim countries to fight all shades of terrorism in the world.
    We are the biggest contributors to the humanitarian relief efforts to help refugees from Syria, Yemen and Iraq. We combat extremist ideology that attempts to hijack our religion, on all levels. We are the sole funders of the United Nations Counter-terrorism Center, which pools intelligence, political, economic, and human resources, worldwide. We buy US treasury bonds, with small interest returns, that help your country’s economy.

    Avec un jeu de mots « Da’ish »/"fahish" ("obscène" ai-je trouvé, mais les arabisants me corrigeront).

  • Nusra deflects blame for protest suppression ; ‘mandate flag… sows division’
    http://syriadirect.org/news/nusra-deflects-blame-for-protest-suppression-%E2%80%98mandate-flag%E2%8

    There were two kinds of flags carried at the protest, said a second protester who requested anonymity. “The first, and the most widespread, was a white flag with the words ‘No God but God, Mohamed is the Prophet of God,’” and the second was the mandate flag.

    When some protesters insisted on raising the disputed flag anyway, masked men began beating people and confiscating cameras, said the same protester.

    “They pulled one young guy into a café across from the clock tower square and started beating him until other protesters were able to pull him out,” he said.

    The masked men arrested 10 protesters and smashed five cameras and three camera phones throughout the dispersal, three protesters told Syria Direct.

    Once the mandate flags were gathered up and confiscated the men replaced them with black Jabhat al-Nusra flags, said the eyewitnesses.

    Despite the security personnel driving Victory Army vehicles, the men who dispersed the protest were acting specifically on behalf of Jabhat al-Nusra and Jund al-Aqsa, an official with Ahrar a-Sham, one of the largest fighting groups within the rebel coalition, told Syria Direct on Tuesday.

    (L’article nous dit en passant qu’il y avait deux genres de drapeaux dans la manif ; curieusement les vidéos Youtube qui ont fait le tour du Web ne montraient jamais celui avec la chahada – “the most widespread”.)

    • C’est un détail ici, mais pas inintéressant, le drapeau de la « rébellion » qui était celui du mandat français , n’a pas été remplacé par Assad en 1970 comme l’indique l’article - manière de dire qu’il symbolise toute la Syrie pre-Assad :

      The so-called “mandate flag” was used by the Syrian Republic during the period of the French mandate from 1920–1946, the latter being the year of Syria’s independence. The flag remained Syria’s national symbol until Hafez al-Assad seized power in 1970. Since 2011, the flag has served as a symbol of the revolution against the government of Hafez al-Assad’s son Bashar, but is seen as a remnant of foreign influence by some Islamist groups.

      Il a d’abord été abandonné au profit du drapeau aux couleurs du nationalisme arabe durant la République Arabe Unie (1958-1961), puis repris durant le gouvernement al-Qudsi (1961-1963) qui était soutenu par les Frères musulmans et des forces pro-occidentales. Il a finalement été définitivement abandonné après le coup d’Etat de 1963 qui a mené al-Atassi et le parti Baath au pouvoir, au profit de différents drapeaux successifs reprenant tous les 3 couleurs du nationalisme arabe.

    • La conclusion de l’article est presque comique :

      “The Victory Army must put an end to these infringements on people’s freedom,” said Abu Bara.
      “Otherwise Idlib will be ruled by gangs like Nusra and Aqsa.”

      « Otherwise » ? Encore ce mythe selon lequel al-Nousra se contenterait des exploits militaires tandis qu’elle laisserait l’administration des zones qu’elle contrôle à la gentille rébellion modérée...
      Sur la question de la présence d’al-Nousra, et de qui est la force dominante à Idlib et dans sa province, Balanche est assez clair dans son dernier article :
      http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/how-to-prevent-al-qaeda-from-seizing-a-safe-zone-in-northwester

  • Selon Erdogan, il n’y a pas de bons et de mauvais terroristes et donc le PYD doit être exclu des accords de cessez-le-feu. Et puis quoi ? Après tout al-Nousra aussi combat Da’ich !
    http://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2016/02/24/pydypg-should-be-left-outside-syria-ceasefire-talks-as-they-are-also-ter

    He said that while Turkey supports the ceasefire process, terrorist organizations PYD and YPG must be excluded, the same way Daesh is excluded.
    ’’It is a complete lie that they support the YPG and PYD for fighting Daesh, but Al-Nusra fights Daesh too’’ Erdoğan said, adding that the West labels some as the ’good terrorists’ while others as ’bad ones.’
    The president underscored that there is no such thing as good or bad terrorist and that all of them should be treated with the same determination.

  • How Arab allies became enemies and then joined the Kurds | Middle East Eye
    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/who-are-arab-allies-syrian-kurdish-militias-987640517

    Nearly six years into Syria’s civil war, lines between allies and enemies have become so blurred that in northern Syria Arabs are now fighting Arabs at the behest of Kurds.

    In recent weeks, under the cover of both US and Russian jets, Syrian Kurds fighting with the YPG have managed to expand their control over much of the region.

    As they have advanced into Marea and towards Azaz, the YPG has been joined by its allies in the 40,000-strong Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed militia that includes Christians, Druze, Turkmen, Assyrians as well as Sunni Arabs like Jaysh al-Thuwwar (JaT) and the al-Sanadid Forces.

    Last May, JaT was founded as an amalgamation of Aleppo-based opposition groups fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner against President Bashar al-Assad’s government and the Islamic State (IS).

    Less than a year later – and to the confusion of observers who long for clear divisions in the conflict - JaT finds itself aligned with the YPG, a move the group says it was forced to make with the rise of militant groups like al-Nusra Front.

    Analysts, however, say the group is attempting to curry favour with the US, and former rebel allies, like Ahrar al-Sham, have quickly branded the fighters “infidels”. Jaish al-Islam leader Mohammed Alloush has called for fighters to disobey orders and defect from the group.

    Regardless of its intentions, JaT’s side-switching highlights a war that has become so fragmented that it is hard to disentangle enemy from ally and has left many civilians caught in the subsequent crossfire.

    – See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/who-are-arab-allies-syrian-kurdish-militias-987640517#sthash.joHcnZux

  • Le mythe de la « bonne volonté » et de l’« impuissance » de la diplomatie française en Syrie…

    Il est certes heureux qu’on s’autorise (enfin) à critiquer médiatiquement le bilan de Laurent Fabius au Ministère des affaires étrangères ; mais il me semble que ces critiques restent très largement dans l’idée que Fabius aurait adopté une posture réellement morale, sans avoir les moyens d’imposer ses positions de principe, essentiellement en Syrie. C’est, à mon avis, passer à côté du sujet syrien… Cette critique colle d’ailleurs toujours parfaitement avec cette idée que ce serait parce que les pays « Amis de la Syrie » ne seraient pas intervenus massivement depuis des années que la situation serait aussi catastrophique.

    Ça me rappelle d’ailleurs les critiques de l’invasion américaine de l’Irak fondées sur l’idée que les États-Unis auraient échoué – malgré leur bonne volonté – à installer la démocratie durable et le nation building que les néoconservateurs avaient « sincèrement » promis.

    Voici donc des éléments largement connus (en se contentant d’éléments sortis dans des médias « reconnus ») permettant de douter du manque d’intervention de la France en Syrie et, surtout, de l’« impuissance » française à faire valoir sa position sincèrement « droit-de-l’hommiste »… (amis de Seenthis, si vous en avez d’autres, je compléterai la liste)

    – fin février 2012 (avant Fabius), des mercenaires français à Homs (selon Malbrunnot)
    http://seenthis.net/messages/315495

    En fait, si les journalistes ne veulent pas sortir, c’est parce qu’ils ne sont pas seuls. Dans Homs, sous les bombes, un petit groupe de mercenaires français est présent, aux côtés des rebelles, le groupe Abou Baqir. L’information nous a été confirmée par la DCRI , et les renseignements syriens. […] Journalistes et mercenaires quitteront Homs séparément via Al-Qoussayr et le Liban où les services de renseignement les recueilleront. Leur sortie a été négociée par la DGSE et les services libanais, selon Bernard Squarcini, avec l’aide de l’Armée syrienne libre précisera Etienne Mougeotte.

    – Fabius dirige le ministère des affaires étrangères depuis mai 2012.

    – des valises de billets livrées par l’ambassadeur Eric Chevallier (septembre 2012) – les valises de billets dans un pays en guerre, c’est pour acheter de la farine…
    http://seenthis.net/messages/141999

    Chevallier se rend de temps en temps à la frontière syrienne pour apporter des fonds à des opposants jugés sûrs. Via des informateurs en contact avec Paris, des représentants des régions libérées de l’emprise de Bachar El-Assad font connaître leurs besoins de médicaments ou d’argent pour réparer les canalisations, renouveler les stocks de farine, gérer les ordures qui s’entassent mais, du moins l’assurent-ils, pas pour acheter des armes.

    Tous se retrouvent discrètement dans un appartement ou dans une petite chambre d’hôtel. Comme dans un film d’espionnage, le diplomate leur remet plusieurs centaines de milliers de dollars sortis d’une valise. Des photos sont prises, les Syriens promettent d’en envoyer d’autres montrant l’avancée des projets menés grâce à la France. Des informateurs rapporteront la réalité des actions engagées. Avant de quitter l’ambassadeur, les Syriens signent même un reçu. Scène surréaliste à quelques kilomètres d’un pays à feu et à sang.

    – état major en Turquie, livraisons d’armes, formation militaire (août 2012, Richard Labévière)
    http://seenthis.net/messages/81260

    Avec le « service action » de la DGSE, la France mène en revanche des opérations de formation et de soutien à l’Armée syrienne libre et à d’autres groupes armés. Sur le plan des transmissions et de l’artillerie : mortiers, missiles antichars et canons de 105 mm. Plusieurs dizaines de conseillers militaires participent déjà à un état-major commun turc, américain et français à Charnagh (Turquie), qui bénéficie d’une aide britannique à la frontière syrienne.

    – livraisons d’armes violant l’embargo européen (commence fin 2012)
    http://seenthis.net/messages/368061

    La France a fourni des armes à des groupes rebelles syriens dès 2012 alors que l’Union européenne avait imposé un embargo sur de telles livraisons. Et c’est le président Hollande qui le dit lui-même dans un livre à paraître le 13 mai aux Editions de l’Archipel, intitulé Dans les coulisses de la diplomatie française, de Sarkozy à Hollande, écrit par le journaliste Xavier Panon.

    « Nous avons commencé quand nous avons eu la certitude qu’elles iraient dans des mains sûres », explique le chef de l’Etat à l’auteur du livre, en mai 2014. Les livraisons ont débuté dès la fin de l’année 2012, alors que l’embargo européen, établi à l’été 2011, est toujours en vigueur. Il ne sera levé qu’à la fin du mois de mai 2013.

    Ce cavalier seul contraint l’Elysée à la prudence. Officiellement, la France se contente d’envoyer de l’équipement non-létal : gilets pare-balles, outils de communication cryptée, masques contre les armes chimiques, lunettes nocturnes. Mais c’est un tout autre matériel qu’elle dépêche sur place : canons de 20 mm, mitrailleuses, lance-roquettes, missiles anti-chars. Seuls les missiles anti-aériens restent tabous. François Hollande n’en enverra pas car ils s’avéreraient trop dangereux si des djihadistes venaient à s’en emparer.

    – promotion active d’Al Nusra (décembre 2012) : « sur le terrain, ils font du bon boulot »
    http://seenthis.net/messages/284012

    En revanche, la décision des Etats-Unis de placer Jabhat Al-Nosra, un groupe djihadiste combattant aux côtés des rebelles, sur leur liste des organisations terroristes, a été vivement critiquée par des soutiens de l’opposition. M. Fabius a ainsi estimé, mercredi, que « tous les Arabes étaient vent debout » contre la position américaine, « parce que, sur le terrain, ils font un bon boulot ». « C’était très net, et le président de la Coalition était aussi sur cette ligne », a ajouté le ministre.

    + entrefilet dans le Canard Enchaîné, Fabius essaie de les faire retirer de la liste des organisations terroristes à l’ONU (mais je ne retrouve pas)

    – mystérieuse affaire de contrebande en Israël (septembre 2013)
    http://seenthis.net/messages/173542

    De fait, en fouillant la voiture les douaniers israéliens découvrent, outre 500 kilos de tabac, quelque 152 kilos d’or, des chèques pour un montant total de deux millions de dollars, et 800 téléphones portables.

    […]

    Tout juste explique-t-on qu’il s’agit, sans doute, d’une affaire crapuleuse et non d’un quelconque financement du terrorisme.

    on n’entendra évidemment pas plus parler de l’affaire similaire en février 2016 (on ne sait quelle ambassade est concernée cette fois-ci)
    http://seenthis.net/messages/458246

    Sinon, des éléments pour lesquels je ne retrouve pas de liens :
    – France seule invitée au sommet GCC, sans doute sensibles aux positions de Fabius sur les Droits humains…
    – liens Fabius/Qatar
    – Haytham Manna devenu persona non grata à Paris (ainsi que les autres membres de l’opposition « de l’intérieur ») ; il me semble que Manna raconte que lui et ses amis, soudainement, ne pouvaient plus obtenir de visas pour venir en France.

    • – Hollande premier chef d’Etat occidental invité au Conseil de Coopération du Golfe : RFI / 5 mai 2015 :
      http://www.rfi.fr/moyen-orient/20150505-riyad-hollande-invite-sommet-conseil-cooperation-golfeccg-iran-

      Après une escale au Qatar, François Hollande est arrivé lundi soir à Riyad, en Arabie saoudite, pour y rencontrer le roi Salman et participer aujourd’hui à un sommet du Conseil de coopération du Golfe (CCG) qui regroupe l’Arabie saoudite, le Qatar, les Emirats arabes unis, le Koweit, Bahrein et Oman. C’est la première fois qu’un chef d’Etat occidental est ainsi accueilli à la table des monarques du CCG.

      – Fabius fait tout son possible pour retirer al-Nusra de la liste des organisations terroristes ; article des journalistes Beau et Bourget qui se basent sur une lettre de l’ambassadeur marocain à l’ONU, envoyée à Rabat, relatant les faits :
      http://seenthis.net/messages/429835

      – Fabius, en février 2012, conseiller en relations internationales du candidat Hollande, déjà pressenti au quai d’Orsay en cas de victoire, réalise une tournée en Israël et au Qatar :
      http://24heuresactu.com/2012/02/03/la-curieuse-tournee-de-laurent-fabius-au-qatar-et-en-israel

      C’est en toute discrétion, et bien loin des journalistes, que Laurent Fabius s’est envolé en début de semaine pour une curieuse tournée au Qatar et en Israël. Une tournée « d’amitié » selon l’ancien Premier ministre qui est en réalité destinée à faire du lobbying pour le candidat socialiste François Hollande… et peut-être chercher de puissants soutiens dans la région.
      Que peut aller faire Laurent Fabius dans l’émirat gazifère du Qatar et en Israël ? Une simple visite « d’amitié », comme il l’assure ? Ou doit-on chercher des raisons autrement plus politiques derrière cette tournée improvisée (et incroyablement peu médiatisée) de l’ancien Premier ministre de François Mitterrand ?

  • Un accord formel a été atteint à Munich entre les pays de l’ISSG (International Syrian Support Group) comprenant tous les acteurs extérieurs du conflit syrien : Saoudiens, Turquie, UK, USA, Qatar, France, Russie, Iran… Il appelle à une cessation des hostilités (mais pas un cessez-le-feu) et à organiser l’accès humanitaire à TOUTES les villes assiégées. Cela semble un bon pas an avant dans toute la partie ouest de la Syrie, mais il y a, selon moi, encore loin de la coupe aux lèvres.
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/12/syria-cessation-of-hostilities-full-text-of-the-support-groups-communiq

    Major powers agreed on Friday to implement a cessation of hostilities in Syria and to expand delivery of humanitarian aid to people caught up in the conflict.

    Cette aide humanitaire commencera par des largages aériens :

    In order to accelerate the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid, sustained delivery of assistance shall begin this week by air to Deir Ez Zour and simultaneously to Fouah, Kafrayah, the besieged areas of rural Damascus, Madaya, Mouadhimiyeh, and Kafr Batna by land, and continue as long as humanitarian needs persist.

    Mais pourquoi aériens ? C’est-à-dire qu’au sol, certains de l’ « opposition » ne sont pas trop d’accord : http://seenthis.net/messages/459779

    Deuxième problème pour le camp Saoud/Turquie, cet accord de cessation d’hostilités ne vaut évidemment ni pour Da’ich, ni pour al-Nusra, qui restent donc des cibles légitimes pour les bombardiers russes. Le texte de l’accord rappelle d’ailleurs les résolutions du CS de l’ONU ( qui excluaient déjà ces deux groupes et « toutes les entités associées à al-Qaïda » du bénéfice de tout accord de cessez-le-feu) :

    The ISSG members agreed that a nationwide cessation of hostilities must be urgently implemented, and should apply to any party currently engaged in military or paramilitary hostilities against any other parties other than Daesh, Jabhat al-Nusra, or other groups designated as terrorist organisations by the United Nations Security Council. […]The ISSG decided that all members will undertake their best efforts, in good faith, to sustain the cessation of hostilities and delivery of humanitarian assistance, and take measures to stop any activities prohibited by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 2170, 2178, 2199, 2249, 2253, and 2254.

    Du coup c’est toute la coalition de l’opposition dans la province d’Idlib et au nord d’Alep, qui comprend al-Nusra, qui est menacée d’implosion, voire de guerre interne, selon une logique qui a déjà été évoque ici : http://seenthis.net/messages/455545 ( et auparavant ici : http://seenthis.net/messages/433418)
    D’ailleurs on commence à avoir une idée du risque qui pèse sur l’autre composante principale, avec al-Nusra, de cette coalition, le groupe salafiste Ahrar al-Cham. Un des activistes de ce groupe, interrogé par le Guardian, déclare que son groupe rejettera cet accord si al-Nusra n’est pas reconnu et ne peut pas s’assoir à la table des négociations. L’idée qu’une telle revendication, asseoir al-Qaïda à la table d’un accord international soutenu à l’ONU, puisse avoir une quelconque chance d’être acceptée, donne une idée du degré de désespoir au sein d’Ahrar al-Cham :
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/feb/12/syria-ceasefire-agreed-munich-peace-talks-live?page=with:block-56bda758

    An activist close to the Ahrar al-Sham rebel group said the agreement amounted to giving Russia time and international cover to continue bombing the opposition fighting the Assad regime, writes Kareem Shaheen.
    He warned that Ahrar al-Sham could reject the deal it allows Russia to continue bombing the al-Nusra Front, which operates throughout much of rebel-held territory in the country.
    “I don’t expect Ahrar to accept it, because the agreement is completely illogical,” he said. “It is a waste of time because as long as Nusra is excluded from the agreement it means fighting will not stop in any area.” […]
    “Not only in Aleppo but in most liberated areas there is Nusra, and consequently this agreement cannot be implemented,” the activist said.

    Voila pour la partie ouest (la plus importante) et sud. Mais cet accord, s’il est respecté et suivi d’actes, laisse pendante la question des territoires de l’est tenus par Da’ich. Très probablement le camp Saoud/Qatar va tout essayer pour se maintenir dans l’équation syrienne et donc tenter la solution B qui consiste à prendre le contrôle de tout ou partie de l’est – et cette fois-ci les USA pourraient bien se laisser tenter : http://seenthis.net/messages/457855#message458439 .
    La course vers Raqqa, comme il y a 70 ans celle vers Berlin, pourrait bien avoir d’ores et déjà commencée : http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/02/the-race-to-raqqa-is-on-to-keep-its-unity-syria-must-win-.html

    • Avec toutefois un bémol : pour atteindre Rakka, pour les Saoudiens il faut passer par l’Irak, la Jordanie ou la Turquie avant d’arriver « sur site » comme ils disent à la radio. Aucun de ces chemins ne me paraît très facile à emprunter. Quant à la voie des airs, il faudra l’accord des Russes...

    • @gonzo : Bien vu ! Je n’y avais simplement pas réfléchi en lisant MoA ! :(

      Hypothèse : puisqu’il faut du temps, il va falloir flinguer cet accord de Munich pour empêcher que l’armée syrienne puisse mobiliser des forces à l’est - quitte à perdre un peu plus de terrain au nord-ouest, et éviter la guerre interne au sein de Jaysh al-Fatah. Campagne de relations publiques contre les frappes russes à prévoir pour masquer les responsables de l’enterrement et accuser Moscou.

      En tout cas, Ryad Hijab laisse clairement entendre que l’opposition de sa majesté Salman pourrait refuser l’accord :
      http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-12/syria-cease-fire-seen-in-a-week-as-talks-lead-to-aid-agreement

      Initial reactions to the deal from within Syria were skeptical. Opposition leader Riad Hijab said on his Twitter account that implementing the cease fire depends on the agreement of the rebels on the southern and northern fronts.