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And next, Syria?

Flavour said:
Subscribe to read | Financial Times

Russia steps up its years-old strategy to vassalize Syria by snapping up state assets as post-civil-war prices
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Buy up assets but play no role in reconstruction. They can't. (I've just started daher's book on this). But see here too:

Makhlouf no more? Russia is calling in the debts in Syria

Last week, news emerged that Rami Makhlouf, cousin of president Bashar al Assad and allegedly the wealthiest man in Syria, had been placed under arrest by the regime, and his substantial holdings transferred to other parastatals. While it is still too early to tell, the most interesting aspect of the emerging story is that the move against Makhlouf was done at the behest of Russia who allegedly demanded $3 billion from the Assad regime who in turn asked Makhlouf – the man sometimes referred to as the regime’s banker.

When Makhlouf refused, Russia produced documentation that showed he could, in fact, produce the funds within three months. This prompted Assad to imprison Makhlouf and his associates and seize nearly all of his assets in Syria. If true, the move represents a radical reshuffling of the Syrian regime’s power structure and, as importantly, the move came at the behest of a foreign patron. What we may be seeing is the full transformation of the Assad regime into a Russian client state at the expense of not only the Syrian regime, but also Iran, it’s other major foreign backer.

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edit: That piece also mentions the southern front, that is going to be part of stuff very soon.
 
Idlib resists

Over the past few days a popular uprising has broken out across Idlib against the hardline Islamist group HTS (formerly Al-Qaeda linked Nusra) which is militarily dominant in much of the province.

...

The dominant narrative promoted by the regime and supporters of Syrian fascism is that Idlib is a ‘terrorist enclave’. The presence of a few thousand extremist militants is presented as justification for the campaign of extermination waged against Idlib’s civilian population of some 3 million people, which includes 1 million children.

Today’s uprising should challenge this narrative. Syrians have continually resisted all forms of authoritarianism and sought to defend their autonomy and desire for freedom and democracy since 2011.

Despite being trapped between the regime and extremists, Idlib remains home to many inspiring civil initiatives and outpourings of creative resistance. Just a few weeks ago, 20 year old rapper Amir Al Muarri released the fierce track ‘On All Fronts’ produced in Idlib. The video (which has subtitles in English, Spanish and Russian) provides a portrait of the province and the diversity of its residents who continue to survive and resist despite living apocalyptic conditions. He spares no criticism for the brutality of the regime, the armed factions which have hijacked the revolution and the foreign interventions of Russia, Iran and Turkey.

It’s people like Amir and the civilians risking their lives to protest today who are Syria’s future and who defy lazy assumptions that the choice Syrians face is between a fascist regime and Al Qaeda. There’s always been a third option.
 
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Some murky stuff here, James Le Mesurier dead after falling from a height in Istanbul. 'Turkish source' says suicide according to this piece.

The russian foreigh office was calling him a spy on friday, inciting people to basically kill him in the same way the papers did with rosa luxemburg and Rudi Dutschke.
 
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(A quick note for some new this thread - none of the below applies to any of the 'kurdish' cantons, to rojava and never has - neither has the non-stop barrel bombings, airstrikes, siege, murder, rape torture and never has. This has been reserved for those fighting the regime, those in fact, providing space for Rojava to have ever existed).

The regime's war on the health infrastructure and personnel continues. Physicians for Human Rights have produced a long detailed report:

“My Only Crime Was That I Was a Doctor” - How the Syrian Government Targets Health Workers for Arrest, Detention, and Torture

The Syrian government and its allies have also systematically targeted health facilities and health workers as part of a wider strategy of war aimed at breaking civilian populations and forcing them into submission.[4] Since the beginning of the conflict, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has documented 583 attacks on health facilities; the Syrian government and its allies have been responsible for carrying out more than 90 percent of these attacks.[5] Through their purposeful assault on health, the Syrian government and its allies have systematically denied access to medical care in areas outside of their immediate control and actively persecuted health workers who, in adherence to their professional ethics, courageously provide such care to the sick and wounded, including opposition supporters.[6] The Syrian government has blatantly disregarded special protections afforded to medical units and personnel under international humanitarian law and has branded health workers – who provide nondiscriminatory health care in line with their legal and ethical obligations – as enemies of the state.

A shorter flavour is given in this NYT report on the report:

In Syria, Health Workers Risk Becoming ‘Enemies of the State’

On Wednesday, Physicians for Human Rights, a group that has documented the collapse of Syria’s health care system, released a study asserting that over the course of the war, President Bashar al-Assad has successfully made medical assistance to his enemies a crime.

Whether it is disinfecting a fighter’s wound or even supplying painkillers to clinics in an insurgent-held neighborhood, such acts are punishable under a counterterrorism law enacted by Mr. al-Assad’s government just over a year after the conflict began in March of 2011. A special court has tried tens of thousands under the law, including many medical workers.

“This report illustrates how the Syrian government has effectively criminalized the provision of nondiscriminatory care to all, regardless of political affiliation,” Physicians for Human Rights said in the study. Health workers who provide care in line with their legal and ethical obligations, it said, are branded as “enemies of the state” in Syria.
 
I know most people have got conflict fatigue or just don't really care that much but recent events in Idlib province portray an ongoing humatarian catastrophe. Amazingly it was one of the top news stories on Radio 6 this morning. Some of you may have seen the vids on twitter, it's ongoing warcrimes time. Just a link here to a page that has another link that you can put your name to:

Five Things You Can Do For Idlib - Idlib Lives
 
teqniq said:
I know most people have got conflict fatigue or just don't really care that much but recent events in Idlib province portray an ongoing humatarian catastrophe. Amazingly it was one of the top news stories on Radio 6 this morning. Some of you may have seen the vids on twitter, it's ongoing warcrimes time. Just a link here to a page that has another link that you can put your name to:

Five Things You Can Do For Idlib - Idlib Lives
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Not conflict fatigue for me - angry silence and disgust. Time better spent on this elsewhere. See some of you in early march in London. The revolution has been killed but it ain't dead.
 
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